Knave Squadron
by TheBeardedOne
Summary: (Written in 2005, posted after rediscovery on disc) An independent fighter squadron gets caught up in the Galactic Civil War
1. Dramatis Personae

**Author's Note**

.

This is not an "official" Star Wars story, although it does intersect some of the official stories. It was first created to answer the observation that a Rebel/New Republic Fighter Wing consists of 36 starfighters (3 squadrons), yet in the books only Rogue and Renegade squadrons are noted, leaving scope for a third squadron to be added to complete the theoretical "Rebel" wing.

Rather than having the story as a standard "squadron created by high command/goes on official missions" type of tale (see X-wing series for examples given by Rogue and Wraith squadrons), I decided to explore the idea of a complete, independent squadron deciding to act against the Empire, and how they would go about doing so. The inclusion of a Jedi orphan was a tip of the hat to Mark Hamill, the Jedi in hiding to Alec Guiness. The other non-human members can be considered a best-of collection of races that appear in the Star Wars universe. The fighter-pilot protocol-droid was a small joke about incongruences who became a far more numerous character (inspired by one of the few good concepts of Episode I). I make no apology for including the horrifying concept of Jar-Jar having a family, but I thought that recycling the N-1s was a nifty idea. Some of the later starfighters mentioned in the books lack the sheer elegance and implied lethality (A-9 Vigilance ring a bell?) of the early ships, although the X-wing is still a great ship.

.

TheBeardedOne

25/08/05

_Extra Note – Going back through my files, I found this forgotten story I wrote almost a decade ago. I am posting it simply because it was the first actual fanfic I ever wrote, years before I discovered the fanfiction website._

_Enjoy_

.

==8o8==

.

**Dramatis Personae**

.

The Knaves

.

Knave 1/Lead :- Dave Hunter (Human male from Corellia)

Knave 2 :- Vint Hack (Human male from Alderaan)

Knave 3 :- Han Tharallen (Human male from Corellia)

Knave 4 :- Thrantarallenazenzal (Verpine male from Klassht Hive Colony)

.

Knave 5 :- Graham (Orphan boy adopted by Khanchassata)

Knave 6 :- Khanchassata (Wookie male from Kashyyyk)

Knave 7 :- Slade Hallon (Shistavanon male from Uvena 4)

Knave 8 :- Golanth (Togorian male from Togoria)

.

Knave 9 :- Marcus Farlander (Human male from Corellia)

Knave 10 :- Haisani Sulona (Miralaku male from Alpheridies)

Knave 11 :- Kal'Infortuna (Twi'lek male from Ryloth)

Knave 12 :- Kay'Infortuna (Twi'lek male from Ryloth)

.

CorSec

.

Gil Bastra (Human male from Corellia)

Corran Horn (Human male from Corellia)

Kirtan Loor (Human male from Coruscant)

Diric Wessiri (Human male from Corellia)

Iella Wessiri (Human female from Corellia)

Whistler (R2 unit belonging to Corran Horn)


	2. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

.

_Corellia :- Located in the system of the same name, Corellia is one of five inhabited planets orbiting the star Corell (the other four being Drall, Selonia, Talus and Tralus). During the Galactic Civil War, Corellia paid lip service to the Empire, but to all intents and purposes remained neutral, using its status as a trading hotbed to persuade both sides that it was best left undisturbed. This rapidly mutated into a de-facto retreat from the rest of the Galaxy. The repercussions of this pseudo-isolationist policy would not become truly apparent until the crises precipitated by the discovery of ancient technology on Centrepoint station, located between Talus and Tralus, the double worlds..._

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

I watched the crowd gasp as the two TIE fighters raced overhead, rolling on their axis as they passed before pulling up and climbing until they were lost in the high cloud layer. A few seconds later they reappeared, diving in parallel towards a ten-metre wide repulsorlift-suspended ring that hovered two hundred metres above the ground. The first TIE dived straight through the middle of the ring and pulled up in a textbook perfect manoeuvre that must have gladdened the hearts of several of the military observers present. The second TIE, however, seemed to miss the ring by several hundred metres. As it raced down, however, it pulled up at the same time as the first TIE, allowing its curve to take it through the ring as it once more soared towards the sky with its partner, vanishing once more into the cloud layer. Beside the suddenly cheering crowd, a loudspeaker crackled into life.

"Ladies and Gentlebeings, please remain in your seats for the final performance, a re-enactment of the Assault on the Triumph."

As soon as I heard that pre-recorded announcement, I closed the canopy of my Assault Gunboat and warmed up the engines, ready to take off. Beside me Vint Hack scrambled into his TIE Bomber, ready for action on its launching catapult. I activated my Repulsorlifts as an X-wing hurtled overhead, followed by two Y-wings, an A-wing and a Z-95. Smiling at the precision of the wedge formation, I toggled my comm system on in time to catch the start of the "Rebel" dialogue.

"Confirming target locked, boss. Loading torps now, we'll blast these Imps to Kessel and back."

During the pause that followed, I pictured Dave toggling the S-foil lever in his X-wing, turning the craft slightly to give the most sinister view of the opening wings. The comm system buzzed with a precise pre-recorded voice, supplied by an obliging off-duty Imperial Officer several years ago, that served as my cue for lift-off.

"Red alert. Red alert. Incoming Rebel craft spotted in sector six, coming in at our stern. Attempting to roll now. Turn to heading one-seven-three mark two. Power up Turbolaser batteries. Five minutes until clearance of gravity-well."

The commanding voice was interrupted by another voice, one that hissed with the overtones of an artificial respirator.

"Captain, order my fighter to be prepared and my wingmen to their Interceptors. Prepare two TIE Fighters, a TIE Bomber and the prototype Assault Gunboat as backup. We will have to take them ship to ship. The Turbolasers will not be able to target them, they are too fast."

I smiled as I rose into formation and pushed the throttle forwards, Marcus was really hamming it up. As I followed in formation, Marcus spoke again, filling his altered voice with menace.

"The X-wing is mine. Wingmen, concentrate on the Z-95. Task Force, Fighters target first Y-wing. Bomber, target second Y-wing. Gunboat, take the A-wing."

Marcus rolled out of formation and homed in on the X-wing, which turned to flee. The A-wing started to loop behind the TIE Advanced, but was forced to dive as the two TIE Interceptors attempted to strafe it before homing in on the Z-95. The remaining Rebel craft had also taken evasive manoeuvres, trying to evade the weaponry of the Imperial fighters. The first Y-wing managed to dodge the fire of the TIE Fighters, the second fell prey to a missile fired from the Bomber. With smoke pouring out of its starboard engine, it looped down behind a hill. There was a bright flash and a sound of a large explosion.

With the loss of its primary target, the Bomber slewed round and fired another missile, catching the Z-95 on the end of its port airfoil and sending it into a spin. As the pilot tried to correct, the I closed in and raked it with fire, pausing as large flames began to issue from canisters slung between the engine nozzles. The Z-95 dived into a canyon, and an instant later the pre-recorded sound of tortured metal was heard, followed by a dying whine from the engines, loud enough for even me to hear it.

Marcus apparently anticipated every twist and turn that the X-wing did , closing in before firing a pair of energy bolts straight into the port S-foils of the X-wing. Rotating madly, the X-wing spun behind the hill, closely followed by the remaining Y-wing, which had fallen prey to the concentrated fire of the two TIE's. The A-wing, apparently seeing that all was lost, climbed above the cloud layer, followed by the two Interceptors and my craft, all of us sending streams of coloured energy at it, missing it by mere centimetres. An instant after we vanished into the clouds, I pressed the button that released an explosive that lit the entire cloudbank, dazzling the spectators and giving us time to dive and take our final positions. As their vision cleared, they saw all of us land in perfect formation on the pad in front of them, the TIE Advanced at the front. The audience erupted into a frenzy of cheers and shouts, drowning out the final announcement from the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlebeings, you have just witnessed Knave Squadron!"

.

Dave Hunter strode into the room, followed closely by his second-in-command, Marcus Farlander. The conversation in the room died away as the we all turned to face him. I could tell from his expression that he had mixed news.

"First, the bad news. One of the spectators, an Imperial Admiral named Ozzel, was so impressed by our display that he has insisted on meeting us, so you will have to be on your best behaviour."

He waited for the groans to fade away before continuing.

"The good news is, that after expenses, fuel, provisions, etceteras, we have made a profit of well over four thousand credits, so your wages for this show are a hundred and fifty each, with the remaining credits going in the safe for the new craft."

I stood up.

"Does that mean that we get it now?"

Dave laughed.

"Sorry, Graham. You will have to wait until tomorrow for that shopping trip. Tonight, however, we are all going to celebrate our most profitable show staged so far."

Dave was interrupted by a harsh knock on the door. Marcus turned and hit the button that opened it, allowing the portly figure in.

"Ah. You must be Dave Hunter. I am Admiral Ozzel, I believe that my aide sorted all the details out."

Marcus coughed delicately.

"Actually, sir, I am Marcus Farlander, the second in command. This is Dave Hunter, just here."

Ozzel looked slightly embarrassed for an instant, giving Dave the perfect opportunity to take charge.

"Don't worry about it, sir. It could happen to anyone. Please, let me introduce you to the rest of my squadron."

With an economical gesture, Dave led Ozzel to the base of the semi-circular table that faced the door. We all quickly moved to it and sat down, ready to be introduced.

"Starting from your left is Thrantarallenazenzal the Verpine, commonly known as Thranta. He is our main technician and flew the A-wing in the display. Next is Haisani Sulona, an excellent Y-wing pilot despite the fact that he is technically blind."

Ozzel took a step back in amazement before leaning forward to stare at Haisani, who turned his eyeless face slightly to give the impression that he was staring back at the portly admiral. Dave explained in an off-hand tone of voice, as if he could not imagine anyone not knowing of Haisani's race.

"Haisani is a Miraluka, a race that evolved with a radar-like ability to sense things, thus rendering the need for eyes obsolete. Next is Han Tharallen who flew the other Y-wing. Next to him is the Shistavanen Slade Hallon, one of the best TIE Interceptor pilots that I have had the privilege to work alongside. Beyond him, looming slightly, is Golanth the Togorian, his wingmate. Next to him is Vint Hack, a dab hand in a TIE Bomber. The Wookie is Khanchassata, who flew the Z-95, and beside him is his adopted son Graham, the pilot of the Assault Gunboat." I smiled and waved, but Ozzel seemed to take no notice of me. "The two Twi'leks are twins, Kay'Infortuna and Kal'Infortuna. Even we cannot tell them apart, with the possible exceptions of Haisani and, for some reason, Graham. Is there something wrong?"

Ozzel gestured abruptly to the door. With a frown on his face, Dave followed Ozzel out of the room. As the door closed I ran to it and pressed my ear against it, in time to overhear Ozzel ranting at Dave.

"What do you mean by employing aliens! Wookies are a specifically designated slave race. Verpine have been confined to their home system except for specially approved reasons and the Twi'leks are forbidden to fly any craft with weaponry!"

Dave's reply sounded unshaken.

"Sir, when you demanded an audience, I thought that this situation might arise. On this datafile which I prepared earlier, you will see copies of the ownership documents for Khan, the exemption forms for Thranta and the special dispensation forms for Kay and Kal. These documents were approved by the Diktat of Corellia and have been personally endorsed by the Emperor himself after he witnessed our first true show three years ago at the COMPNOR convention on Corellia. I do not see any problems at all."

"I see. Well, I must admit that you are sane, after all. Well, it was a good performance. Who was flying the TIE Advanced?"

"Marcus Farlander."

Ozzel sucked in his breath slowly, like a Corellian Sand-panther before it pounces on its prey.

"Is he related to Keyan Farlander, the Rebel with the four thousand credit bounty on his head?"

"Distantly. They shared the same great-grandfather, so they are second cousins. However, before you take pre-emptive action, I seem to recall that a certain Imperial Planetary Governor had a son who joined the Rebellion. Did you ever question the Governor about that incident? Was it he that incited his son to join the Rebels, or did his son just decide that he wanted illicit excitement of the sort that can only be found amongst a group of traitors?"

There was a long pause before Ozzel responded.

"I take your point, it is not the family that is at fault, it is the misguided individuals that join the Rebels that need attention."

"Indeed. Other documents on the pad show that Haisani, Slade and Golanth have all been investigated and approved by both Imperial Security and CorSec. I assure you, we have no traitors in our ranks, just hardworking pilots who do our best to help to raise morale and in doing so, aid the Empire."

"I see. Tell me, do you have any plans for the future?"

"Well, if we can raise another forty thousand credits, we are planning on buying and modifying a Corellian Corvette so that we can take our performances to wherever they will do the most good."

There was another long pause, during which I heard Ozzel speak softly into his communicator. The tinny voice replied, and he grunted what sounded like approval.

"As it happens, the Imperial Navy recently captured a smugglers corvette in

orbit above this planet. We cannot use it, as it would cost too much to rebuild it to Imperial specifications, so we were planning on destroying it. I will arrange for it to be given to you, thus solving two problems at once. You will have to rename it, as the name "Death to Palpatine" would cause you to be shot down almost at once, but it has been modified so that it has a large hold on either side. All you have to do is make a few trifling modifications, and you will be able to perform anywhere in the galaxy. Anywhere, even, if I may suggest it, Coruscant."

"Thank you, sir. I expect that we will soon be able to perform for the Emperor himself again. We will be sure to mention your contribution when we do."

Ozzel let out a pleased grunt which was interrupted by a high-pitched beeping.

"Ah. Got to go. You will get the Corvette tomorrow. Hail the Emperor!"

I heard the footsteps of Admiral Ozzel fade away before I ran back to my chair, sitting down just as Dave came in. He glanced at me, and I knew that he knew that I had overheard the conversation. He smiled and spoke.

"I have some good news, it seems as though we are getting a Corvette from the Empire itself in exchange for services rendered. Graham, looks like you will get to do that shopping trip tomorrow, as will several others of us."

.

I feathered the throttle as the speeder lifted and smoothly started forwards. Behind me, Khan jammed the lever forward on his speeder, and held on grimly as his speeder leapt forward like a hungry Sand-panther. I carefully slid in formation behind him as he rocketed past, watching him sway wildly as he wrestled to bring the speeder back under control. He finally managed and let out a roar, his mane flying over the straps of his protective goggles. I switched on my helmet comlink as he dropped back to beside me.

"Khan, do you want a race to Peregrine's point?"

Khan glanced over at me and bared his teeth in a growl of assent before positioning one hand over the throttle. I placed my hand on my speeder's throttle and started to count down.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One. ZERO!"

As I shouted zero, we both thrust our throttles to maximum and hunched forwards, bracing ourselves against the wind. Khan pulled ahead slightly before he "bounced" over a rock outcropping, losing some speed and allowing me to sneak past him. Knowing what he was planning, I turned to my right and went straight into a valley, using the downslope to boost my velocity. Glancing back, I could see him silhouetted against the sky as he flew along the very edge of the valley, a move that would have prevented me from maintaining my lead had I not taken the detour. Glancing ahead, I saw a long rock-ramp leading up the left side of the valley. In a moment of mischief, I aimed straight for it, letting it carry me above the edge of the valley. My speeder flew off the end of the ramp and leapt across the gap before landing to the left of Khan. Unfortunately, my landing had robbed me of some of my speed, and that was all that Khan needed to pull into the lead. I looked ahead and could see Peregrine's Point start to rise on the horizon slightly to the left, just beyond the Crystal Swamps. I looked ahead at Khan, and then altered course, heading straight for the swamp while he went the other way, skirting it. As I passed through the wall of mist that marked the edge of the swamp, some instinct caused me to slide the speeder slightly to the left. An instant later, I ducked an outflung diamondtree branch, missing the trunk by a mere metre, and pulled up slightly to avoid disembowelling the speeder on some silver razorleaf. Ahead, I saw several geysers spouting high. Acting again on instinct, I aimed at one, throttled back slightly, and flew through a fine mist as the torrent of boiling water stopped spouting an instant before I reached it. As my goggles cleared, I saw that I was heading towards a shardbush, the one of the plants on Corellia with a natural monomolecular edge. Yanking the speeder to the right, the bush missed my leg by the merest fraction of a millimetre, but placing me on a collision course with a low outcropping of rock. Before I could do more than gasp in horror, a sudden updraft lofted me over the rock, and back out of the swamps. I poured on the power and raced up the slope, pulling to a stop just at the top of the conical hill. As I pulled off my goggles and wiped my forehead, Khan pulled up beside me and growled questioningly.

"I won."

Khan shook his head in mock disgust and pointed at the rear end of my speeder. Turning, I saw a deep cut in the armour plating just over the engine thrust nozzles. I swallowed, remembering how close the shardbush had passed to my leg.

"Okay. We'll take it easy on the way back."

Khan nodded agreement as he restarted his speeder, swinging it towards Coronet. I followed sedately, occasionally glancing back at the worryingly deep scoring on my speeder.

.

"I don't know who used to own this Corvette, but it is both a total mess and a work of sheer genius."

I entered as the translator worn by Thranta finished the sentence.

"Well, part of your job is to get wrecks back into condition. What can you tell me about this ship?" Dave asked.

Thranta motioned for Dave to follow him as he walked round the Corvette, with me close behind him.

"Well, for a start, the engines have been modified, even fully laden, it can go as fast as a Y-wing, and possibly faster. However, the sensors are next to useless, probably been taken from an antique Cloakshape, a severely damaged Cloakshape at that. It has several hidden weapons, hidden so well in fact, that even I found them hard to find. The two upgraded Quad lasers that have replaced the original dual Turbolasers are obvious, but the three missile launchers, two fore and one aft, the dorsal Ion cannon, the two forward firing Turbolasers and the four side-mounted retractable dual laser cannons will need a great deal of work to get them working again. It looks like they broke down just before the Corvette was captured, and so escaped detection. The life support system needs completely upgrading, as do the access panels to the holds. I was going to remove them and install a special retractable air-tight roof system with a MagCon seal. There is ample space for us and our craft, especially since the wing-quarters have, as you can see, been partially replaced by extensively modified armoured containers, but the bridge transparisteel plating needs replacing, it will probably not last for more than another twelve hours of voidflight. The Hyperdrive can be upgraded from a class two to a class point seven five if I can get my claws on a leeth-mark five point seven computational hyperspace analysing module and a clathh-four point three Hyperdrive motivator booster unit, but the backup is completely shot, and needs replacing, hopefully with a class one at least. The hull itself is in very good condition, but I need parts for the shield generators, although I will be able to upgrade them as well to nearly Star Destroyer-class. The landing gear needs minor structural adjustments, and the navicomp needs extensive reprogramming if not replacing. The fuel level is almost zero, the repulsorlifts need significant retuning and the lower-port engine is running at only forty-three percent of optimal. All in all, it is better than I had hoped for, and will be well within our present financial resources."

"Can you get it flying again?"

"Alone, it will take me several months, assuming we have the parts. With help, we will be ready about twelve days after we finish the shopping trip, assuming that there are no emergencies or other detrimental activities."

"Okay. Give me the list of the parts you want. Get the others to help you make a start, and make sure that you get Graham to help in the refitting, he seems to be intent on spending his credits before anyone else, and we need to encourage prudence in terms of monetary matters."

Thranta let out a low buzz of laughter as he glanced back and saw my scowl.

"I've only spent forty credits so far."

"Yes, for three data-card novels and a meal out. Khan told me about it over the comm when you two were coming back. Thranta, we have a full month before our next major show, so as well as this craft, I want the X-wing checked. The upper port engine was only at seventy percent efficiency and the starboard debris extractors seem to have lost their protective properties against excess dust in the atmosphere. The engines nearly failed twice because of that."

.

Thranta piloted the Fighter-transport speeder out through the Hanger door and accelerated towards the horizon, Marcus, Slade and Golanth slowing their swoops slightly to flank the speeder. Kal and Kay watched them go before turning towards me and Haisini as we stood underneath the Corvette.

"Well, let's -"

"- get started."

Hasaini smiled at them.

"That's a good trick. Have you been practising it long?"

I glanced at him, amazed that he had worked out what they were doing.

"What do -"

"- you mean?"

"Telling each other what to say with your lekku, thus confusing and mystifying everyone else."

Kal laughed.

"How come it works on everyone except you and Graham?"

At the tone of his voice, I smiled. I did not know how, but I had managed to work out what they were doing, and had actually understood what they were saying, the first time they had tried that trick on me.

"I don't know about Graham, but I can sense your lekku moving, and can draw logical conclusions about what you are saying."

Kay twitched both lekku violently. I laughed before replying.

"You should believe it."

Kay glanced at Kal, who burst out laughing again.

"Alright. You win. Let's have a look at the list of things that need doing before the others return. Hmmm. The formation lights need reconnecting and testing, the landing gear needs adjusting, the primary and secondary sensor arrays need to be removed ready for the installation of new upgraded arrays and the sensor/targeting computor needs replacing and debugging."

I instantly volunteered for the Targeting system work.

"Kay, what do you want to do?"

"I always wanted to pull out a sensor array."

"Alright. Hasaini?"

"I think that I will adjust the landing gear. Kal, Where did you put the fusion-welder and the face-mask?"

"Behind you, to the left of the cryo-jet assembly. That means that I am doing the lights. Alright, let's get started."

.

Khan walked into the Hangar just as the heavily-laden Fighter-transport speeder touched down on the plascrete. Thranta waved at him as I lifted the first computer core down, ready for installation. Khan looked round, and started to retreat, only to be stopped by Thranta's artificial voice.

"Glad you could come, we need all the help we can get with the parts. You and Golanth unload the shield and hyperdrive systems and place them just by the engines. Marcus, Slade, you deal with the sensor arrays, put them all underneath the bridge module. Kay and Kal, you place the weapon parts under the port side. The rest of you, help me with the armour plating and Transparisteel. The datapads on the side will show you how to install the different parts once we have unloaded."

Grunting slightly, Khan and Golanth lifted the first of the four shield generators down from the speeder as I staggered up the ramp with my burden. Once I reached the computer room, I picked up my hydrospanner and started to remove the old wiring, frowning at the flakes of rust and dirt that showered me as I worked. As I removed it, I accidentally hit a button that was mounted on one wall. Opposite me, a screen flickered into life, showing a view of Haisani partially obscured by a shower of sparks. I moved to look closer at the monitor, finally spotting a row of buttons underneath. Choosing one at random, I pressed it and the picture changed to a view of Kal, from above his head. Picking up the microphone underneath, I spoke into it.

"Hello, Kal."

Kal started, and looked round, trying to see who had spoken. His mouth and lekku moved, but no sound came. I hunted round the monitor and finally pressed a likely-looking button.

"I said, who's there?"

I smiled and spoke into the microphone.

"Kal, I just got the cameras working. Gave you a shock, didn't it?"

Kal looked up and spotted the camera. He waved at me and smiled, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"I see. Question for you, how long before you can tie the cameras into the targeting system?"

I thought about that, pulling up a system analysis programme on the secondary monitor and highlighting the camera icon.

"If I read the screen correctly, the previous owners of this ship got a full 360 degree sphere of coverage from the cameras, with no blind spots. Give me a few hours to debug the secondary sensor visual input interface software and we should have a sensor/visual matrix to ensure high accuracy and ease of use. With slight tweaking of the systems and partial reprogramming of the new computer cores, I can probably create a holo-display showing other craft in relation to our ship, with full sensor/targeting information. Thanks for the idea."

As I deactivated the cameras, I heard Kal mutter to himself.

"Ask a silly question . . ."

Smiling, I picked up the Hydrospanner and concentrated on fitting the computors into their respective places. Once I had managed to connect them, I activated them and ran them through their startup programmes.

"Ahhh, therrre youu aarrre." rumbled a deep voice.

Without looking up from the screen, I waved at Golanth.

"Golanth, you are good with computors. I seem to be having trouble with the integration-five sequence. It says that there is a type seven-three hardware fault."

Golanth turned and slammed his fist into the wall, shaking the computors. The screen in front of me flickered, and then displayed a new message.

"'Integration sequence five, completed.' Thanks Golanth."

Golanth grunted, and then placed a package beside me.

"Daave saays youu haave too eaat."

I nodded and reached out for the package with one hand while adjusting the secondary sensor visual input interface software with the other. Golanth grunted and strode out of the room. I watched him go before returning my attention to the scrolling programme in front of me.

.

With a roar, the final engine ignited, the exhaust fumes drifting away in the breeze. The ship _thrummed_ with the harnessed power as the engines cycled through their test sequence before extinguishing with a muted rumble. Beside me, Golanth roared with satisfaction as I thumbed my comlink.

"Dave, the engine powered up succesfully and showed no visual sign of deviation. I think that we managed to get it working at last."

"I copy, internal sensors agree with your assesment. Engines are now powered down, replace the access panels and report to the hangar."

I grabbed one of the ropes that dangled down from the top of the engine array and used it to haul myself up to the lowest tier of engines, coming to a halt just beside Khan. Balancing myself on the ledge, I reached out and swung the panel up on its final fastener, holding it steady while Khan used a hydrospanner to secure it into place. Once it was secured, I pulled myself up to the top tier of engines, balanced myself on a small platform and reached for the next access panel, swinging it shut, then securing it into place. I had just finished when a familier voice called out my name. Craning round, I tried to see who was talking to me. An instant later, as I shifted my weight, I suddenly felt my foot slip, and realised that I had hit a patch of oil. No sooner had the realisation occured, then I flung out an arm, trying to stabilize my position before I could fall, but my hands only encountered smooth hull plating. Trying frantically to keep on the ledge, I tried to move off the oil, but only managed to destabilise myself, slipping away from the engine. As I fell, I shouted out, trying to gain the attention of Khan. As I fell, I saw Khan trying to reach out to catch me, but I missed his hand by millimetres and plummeted. An instant later, a pair of large furry arms snatched me from the air and set me onto the ground, supporting me as I staggered in shock. As I recovered, Khan slid down a rope, and grabbed me, pulling me into a hug as he apologised for missing me.

"Khan, it's all right. Golanth caught me. Thanks, Golanth."

As Khan released me, I turned, and almost bumped into someone.

"Sorry. Corran!"

Coran Horn smiled, and from behind Golanth a familiar tootling announced Whistler's presence.

"Sorry to interrupt you. I had a free day, and thought that I would drop in and see how you were. I didn't expect _you_ to be the one to do the dropping, though."

Khan rumbled slightly, muttering about how humans had no sense of self-preservation, joking about death when there were Wookies and Togorians present. Golanth growled in agreement while Corran merely grinned wider.

"I thought that I would give you a hand getting the Knave Home fixed up, It has certainly been improved since I disabled it on approach."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Ozzel said that the Imperial Starfleet had captured it!"

Corran smiled.

"I disabled it, and they pulled it into their hangar bay. Think of it as a combined operation. We pulled fifty kilos of glitterstim from it, and the smugglers _volunteered_ to have a nice vacation on Kessel. So, what needs doing to get it working again?"

I smiled, then turned to face the Knave Home.

"We've managed to fix the engines and all the other primary systems, so, as normal, you've arrived just in time to miss the hard work."

Beside me, Corran choked while Whistler released an ascending whistle of laughter.


	3. Chapter 2

**INTERLUDE**

_._

_ After the Battle of Hoth, the Rebels fled from the Ice planet. They caused the destruction of the criminal organisation Black Sun, before launching an all-out attack on the Second Death Star. After their incredible victory at Endor, killing the Emperor and destroying the Second Death Star, the leadership of the Empire was assumed by Sate Pestage, former aide to Palpatine. The Imperial Worlds are now under emergency rule, with forced enlistment on all loyal worlds for the Imperial Starfleet. The Corellian Security Bureau on Corellia is in the process of turning into the Imperial-aligned Public Safety Service. Stormtroopers have started to patrol Coronet and a new Imperial-aligned Diktat has been installed. Imperial Fleets have relocated to the Corellia system, occupying the Corellian Shipyards which are churning out new craft for the war against the New Republic._

==808==

**CHAPTER TWO**

.

_TIE Pilots :- Generally human males, although there have been several noted female and non-human TIE Pilots, TIE Pilots were trained to fly Imperial TIE Starfighters. Trained in obedience, teamwork and reliance on higher authority, TIE Pilots nevertheless seldom survived their first year of combat flying. After the full year of starfighter duty, many surviving TIE Pilots accepted promotions and became officers on capital ships. The most noted Imperial TIE Pilot was Corellian-born Baron Soontir Fel, who flew in TIE's for six years prior to his defection to the Alliance, and subsequent mysterious disappearance into the Unknown Realms (See Fel, Baron Soontir, Mith'raw'nuado and Chiss). It was rumoured that Darth Vader had his TIE Advanced built specially so that he could equal Baron Fel in a dogfight..._

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

I leapt to my feet in anger, slamming my palm against the tinted transparisteel table to emphasise my point.

"I don't care what they say, I am not going to the Academy. I don't want to be a TIE Pilot, or an Imperial Trainee Cadet. I am not going to go!"

Marcus gestured for me to sit down before unpausing the holomessage.

"It is also required for the Wookie Khanchassata to be delivered to the nearest Imperial Assignment Bureau for compulsory duties at Imperial Spacedock 4. Haisini Sulona, Thrantarallenazenzal, Golanth, Kal'Infortuna and Kay'Infortuna are hereby designated as security risks, and are required to return to their home planets. Slade Hallon is to report to the nearest Imperial Assignment Bureau for retraining in scout duties. Failure to comply with these orders will result in find-and-detain warrents being passed on all non-conforming members of Knave Squadron. By order of Kirtan Loor, acting on instructions given by Ysanne Isard, Imperial Intelligence Director."

As the figure of the Imperial agent flickered and faded, Marcus looked up at us with one eyebrow cocked.

"Well, it seems that our little gang is due to be disbanded."

"I cannot comply with the request." buzzed Thranta. "My hive was destroyed when the Victory Star Destroyer Garrotte collided with it."

Khan roared his disapproval of the holomessage, adding several explicit threats about what he would do to Kirtan Loor, providing that he had three Sand panthers, a Shardbush, two tonnes of Vynock manure, three pints of Bantha spit and several extremely heavy hydrospanners.

"I quite agree," I interrupted, "but I think that the three Sand Panthers are overdoing it a little. Why not use an angry Gundark instead?"

"Hold it." growled Slade while Khan chortled. "I like it with you, and I know that you all agree that we are a good team. The Empire refuses to keep us together, and we know that the Empire is not going to let us remain together if possible. Look at what happened to Alderaan, and at Ghorman. The Empire is trying to separate us, so we must not give it a chance. Let us join the Rebel Alliance. They will welcome us, and let us stay together."

I nodded, noticing the expressions of agreement on the faces of the others.

"Well said." stated a cultured voice from behind us.

Dave spun round, his pistol seeming to leap from its holster into his hand as he faced the old man who was standing in the doorway. The man raised his hands in a gesture of peace.

"Surely you won't shoot an unarmed acquaintance?"

"Gil. Gil Bastra!" I called as he smiled at me.

"I suppose you're going to turn us in for anti-Empire activity." growled Slade. I glanced at him, noticing that he had pulled himself into an attack position, ready to pounce if Gil answered wrong.

"Quite the opposite, I assure you. I actually came to hire you to help me."

Dave frowned and cocked his head slightly, indicating that Gil should continue.

"I wish to hire you to take me to Tatooine. There will be three of us, and we want to avoid any Imperial entanglements."

"But you're from CorSec. CorSec are Imperial, or at least aligned with them." Slade snarled in astonishment.

Gil smiled at him. "Today, yes. Tomorrow, no. I must admit, I timed my visit to hear what you thought of the new orders given by the extremely officious Imperial Liaison officer, Kirtan Loor."

"Absolute dewback drool!" I burst out.

Gil smiled at me before replying.

"Yes. In this, I completely agree with you. Our orders were similar, Corran Horn has been ordered to report to the Imperial academy for retraining as a TIE Pilot, I have been "asked" to retire, as has Rostek Horn and Diric Wessiri, and Iella is due to be reassigned to a very unsavoury job in Imperial Intelligence. That's assuming that Imperials _have_ any intelligence."

Dave looked at me and I nodded slightly, telling him that I believed that Gil was telling the truth. He stood up and turned to face Gil.

"All right, but I want details, and I want them now. I assume that we will be helping you by taking someone with us when we leave Corellia, so who will we be carrying, and how much will we earn?"

"You will be carrying me, Iella Wessiri and Diric Wessiri."

As I heard the names, I slumped back in my chair. Marcus glanced at me, and realising what was wrong, turned to face Gil.

"What about Corran Horn and Whistler?"

"You know Corran and Whistler personally?"

Marcus smiled.

"Yes, we know them. Corran used several of his vacations to help teach Graham how to fly in our displays, and tells him stories about life in CorSec."

Dave continued where Marcus left off. "We accept your offer, as long as you tell us what is going to happen with Corran Horn."

Gill smiled.

"Corran is going to use his X-wing to punch out of Corellian space. I have already arranged a dozen pseudo-identities for him, so he will be safe. In fact, if we time it right, Corran can cover us from any wandering Imperial TIEs. I am sure that he will agree to that."

Marcus smiled again.

"Tell Corran to fly here in his X-wing. We all leave together tomorrow."

.

The dream started the way it normally did, with me discovering the body of the old thief who had looked after me for seven years. I saw myself standing over his still body, tears glistening unshed in my eyes. The viewpoint moved, and I was outside the headquarters of Knave Squadron, about to try to break in and steal as many credits as possible. I crawled through an old, forgotten storm-drain, surfacing just beside the building. Moving quietly to avoid triggering any sound sensors, I crept round the building until I spotted an open window high above me. Pulling out my padded grapple, I tied my rope to it and hurled it through the window, hearing the thunk as it landed in the dark room. Pulling the rope taut, I climbed up and scrambled into the building. Slipping quietly through the door, I started down the stairs, descending two storeys to reach ground level. As I crept past the kitchen, a giant being that seemed to be all fur, teeth and claws bumped into me unexpectedly. My reflexes threw me backwards and I turned and ran frantically, hearing an oddly-accented yell of "Sstop, thhiefff!" behind me. Scrambling back up the stairs with no attempt at stealth, I heard the commotion swell behind me, and the noise of the being who I had bumped into coming up the stairs, gaining on me. Letting my fear give me energy, I raced up the stairs, realising too late that I had overshot the level that I had entered through. Reaching the top, I threw myself against the door blocking my path. It burst open and I fell onto the ground, grazing myself on the rough surface. Getting up, I found myself on the flat roof of the building, near the foot-high wall that marked the edge of the building. Turning, I saw several people coming out of the door, and again my reflexes hurled me backwards, this time off the roof. As I went over, I managed to scrape the low parapet with my fingers, getting enough leverage to swing against the wall, but not enough to hold on. As if in slow motion, I watched the wall slowly rise past me, picking up speed. Spotting a window beneath me, I reached out with both hands as it passed, and was rewarded with a bone-shaking impact as I swung into the wall. By some miracle, I managed to keep my grip, holding myself above certain death by the strength of one hand. Looking down, I could see a plascrete surface apparently ten miles below me, dark in the moonlight, the colour of death. I tried to examine the walls, but there were no cracks, lumps or irregularities that could save me. Resigning myself to the inevitable, I took a deep breath and screamed for help as a head appeared over the parapet. Dimly, I heard an exclamation of surprise, followed quickly by a shout for rope. As the head drew back, the window that I was dangling below opened, and a hairy paw reached out and grabbed my tunic. With no apparent effort, the owner of the paw lifted by up and hauled me in through the window. Unable to move, I shivered with the reaction of the adrenaline that had coursed through me in my attempt to escape, then looked up at my rescuer, and fell into blackness.

I sat up and shook my head, trying to dispel the lingering effects of the dream. I glanced over at the bed on the other side of the cabin, seeing the lanky form of Khan. For an instant, I saw myself looking up at him after he had pulled me through the window, but I shook off the flashback, and moved to the viewport, looking out at the slowly lightening sky while I absently polished the specially-sized Ryyk Kerarthor blade that Khan had given me for my last birthday.

.

The dawn was interrupted by the whine of an approaching X-wing and airspeeder. They touched down together on the landing pad just as I emerged from the Knave Home and Dave walked out of his quarters. Gil almost dived out of the speeder, moving quickly despite his bulk. He looked round in a near-panic, saw Dave and started talking quickly.

"Hunter. Thank goodness. We need to leave now! Kirtan suspects that something is wrong, and has sent a squadron of TIE's after us. Corran shot down one flight that tried to intercept him, but the other two are in orbit, waiting for us. We also picked up messages from the Steel Glove, the Annihilator and the New Order. They are about to launch their TIE's and move to intercept once we launch."

Dave paused for an instant, assimilating this new information. He quickly reached a decision and started to bark out orders.

"Graham, get back aboard. Gil, get your party on board now!"

Dave turned and ran into the bridge, hitting the red-alert button on the way. As the siren echoed through the ship, Gil and I glanced at each other before heading towards the bridge at a dead run.

"What's going on?" I asked as I entered the bridge, followed closely by Gil, Iella and Diric.

"We're getting out of here. Are our visitors and crew on board?"

I glanced at the crew status board before answering, "Yes. Why?"

"Close the hatch, get everyone out of their bunks and to battle stations. Graham, get to the Assault Gunboat and prepare to launch. Tell Marcus to use my X-wing, and tell Thranta to get into his A-wing. We cannot use the TIE's, or the Y-wings this time, we need speed _and_ shields to escape. Knave Home to Corran Horn, we are lifting off and going into orbit. We will launch an X-wing, an A-wing and an Assault gunboat to help you provide cover. Any questions?"

Corran's slightly worried voice came through the speakers.

"Knave Home, suggest that we use course heading one-seven-four, elevation thirty. Whistler says that it will avoid the electrical storm that is incoming."

"Acknowledged, Corran. Prepare to launch."

As he activated the repulsorlifts, Haisini ran in and sat at the communication/sensor panel, while Han Tharallen leapt into the navigation position. I waited until they had both entered before running to the upper port launch bay and climbing into my Gunboat. I switched on my direct comm in time to hear Haisini talking to Dave.

"Kay and Kal are manning the quads, Golanth and Khan are coming to man the missile launchers and side lasers. Slade will be here to man the new Bow Turbolasers as soon as he pulls on some clothes. Marcus, Thranta and Graham should be ready to launch by now"

"Good. Activating thrust sequence, exiting hangar. CorSec X-wing holding position covering port side."

As we exited the hanger, the upper starfighter hanger door rolled open. I activated my engines as the launch tractor beam hurled me into the atmosphere. Ignoring the sudden buffeting, I switched on my sensors, blinked, and quickly hit my comm switch.

"Knave Home, we have incoming."

"How many?"

"Eight eyeballs, coming in at twelve high."

"Got them. Knave Home to escort, we have eight eyeballs incoming. Corran, once we are out of the gravity well, make your jump. We will cover for you. Marcus, Thranta, Graham, transmitting Hyperspace jump co-ordinates ready for use. Range to eyeballs, six kilometres and closing. Thranta, you go and break their formation, Corran and Marcus, you follow and _enlighten_ them. Graham, you take any stragglers."

Thranta raced ahead in his A-wing as I pushed the throttle to maximum, activated my forward shields and switched my comm over to the tactical frequency.

"Thranta is nearly in contact with enemy."

As I watched, the red dots on my forward scanner scattered away from the lone green dot in their midst.

"Attack group, break and engage."

I dived slightly to give Corran and Marcus a clear field of fire before rolling and homing in on a TIE trying to sneak up from underneath. It seemed to leap into my HUD and an instant later, my lasers turned it into scrap. I checked my sensors and pulled up, evening out my shields as I did so.

"Corran, Eyeball on your aft."

Glancing up, I saw a TIE moving in to vape Corran. Without thinking, I pulled in behind the TIE and fired a pair of green laser bolts into his exhaust vents. The TIE exploded, decomposing into an expanding cone of burning plasma.

"Scratch one eyeball."

"Thanks."

"Incoming, got him."

"Gunboat, evasive!"

My reflexes took over and I spun to my port. An instant later, a pair of green laser bolts pierced the space that I had just vacated. I pulled up and spun in a reverse Tallon twist, but the TIE stayed firmly on my aft.

"I can't shake him!"

"Graham, Corellian Twist. Pull up now!"

I pulled up as Corran raced towards me, firing his lasers. His lasers passed beneath me and a bright flash from behind nearly blinded me.

"Thanks."

Corran double-clicked his comm to signal that he had received my message. An instant later, Dave came on line.

"Corran, we have cleared the gravity well. You're clear to jump."

Corran pulled in beside me, waved and then peeled off. An instant later, his X-wing seemed to shudder, elongate and blur into the distance as he entered hyperspace.

"Goodbye, my friend." I said.

"Knave Home, three incoming from ahead, cannot reach them."

"Got them."

I glanced back just in time to see the two Turbolasers on the Knave Home nail the last TIE.

"Let's go. Check navicomps, engage hyperdrives."

I pulled my Hyperdrive levers towards me, but nothing happened except for a slight shudder through the ship.

"What's going on?"

"Home, This is Marcus. We have a problem, Interdictor coming in from behind, reads as the Black Asp. It's launching squints. It gravved us just as Corran left."

I thumbed my comm unit.

"That's not all. I read three ISD's incoming, reading them as Steel Glove, New Order and Annihilator. ETA, ten minutes. Their TIE's have an ETA of three minutes. We need to take out the Asp. Marcus, cover me. I'm going in."

I pulled back on the stick and looped round to face the Asp.

"Knave Home, do a scan. Are the shield generators vulnerable? I seemed to hear something about vulnerable towers prior to Endor."

"Scanning. Looks like they haven't upgraded the gravships shield towers yet. They have minimal armour plating, so a few torps in each should panic them."

"In thirty seconds, do an attack run and clear our exit vector. Marcus, vape the squints. I'm going in."

"Negative Graham. You shock the squints, I'll take the generators. This baby has four missiles still in it, yours only has two. Setting for dual fire, going in."

Marcus' X-wing peeled off and pulled ahead of me. I waited for a few seconds, then pulled up slightly.

"Providing ion cover, don't panic."

Aiming just above his cockpit, I squeezed my trigger, sending bolt after bolt of blue energy past him. An instant later, his lasers started to fire scarlet bolts that ripped into the oncoming squadron, devastating them. Half of them exploded or shut down, the rest peeled off and turned to flee. I carefully picked them off one by one with my ion cannons in a belated attempt to avoid killing any other pilots.

"Firing one."

I turned just in time to see two staggered missiles race toward the first generator, the first missile creating a hole in the shield so that the second missile could pass through and destroy it in a sheet of golden flame. I frowned slightly, feeling a nebulous sense of unease..

"Firing two."

The feeling solidified and I slammed my comm system on.

"Marcus, get out of there!"

A bolt of blue ion energy lanced upwards from the edge of the Black Asp, striking Marcus' X-wing just as he fired his final missiles at the second generator. Out of control and with lightning crackling along its hull, the X-wing careened straight into the bridge of the Black Asp. A moment later, the Black Asp started to rotate to its port as its computer core shut down in a cascade reaction. My comm buzzed and I heard Dave's voice.

"Knave Home to all fighters. Field is down, repeat, field is down. Engage hyperdrives on my mark. Mark!"

Numbly, I hit the auto-orientation button, and then pulled the hyperdrive lever. The stars lengthened into spears of light, and it seemed that each one cut into my heart.

.

"This place is a dustbowl."

Khan bared his fangs in a sad smile as he helped me down from the gunboat and steadied me on the shifting sands.

"I mean, only one real city, Moss some-thing or other, several small towns, no water at all, how can anyone live here?"

Khan tilted his head and let out a soft bark.

"Company? Now?"

I pulled out my blaster and set it to stun, wishing that I had remembered my custom Ryyk Kerathor blade which was still by my bunk.

"How could they have found us so fast?"

"Because I told them where and when."

I dived sideways, spinning to face the person who had spoken. A brief glance told me who it was, and I got up in disgust.

"Can you at least make some noise when you move?"

Gil smiled as Diric and Iella descended the ramp behind him.

"Sorry, force of habit. They are coming for me, Iella and Diric. Here is where we part company. I would advise you to leave as soon as possible, I have already paid what we owed you for your aid."

Just as he finished his sentence, two speeders crested the edge of the crater and glided to a stop just metres away. The hatch of the first speeder opened and a human male climbed out.

"Dirk and Chiel Wessaar?"

Diric and Iella picked up their luggage and walked over to the speeder. Gil watched them go with a sad expression on his face.

"Farewell, my friends. May we meet in a better life, for my days are limited."

He walked over to the second speeder, pausing to turn and speak.

"May the Force be with you, my friends, and may we meet under more congenial circumstances."

As both speeders lifted up and moved away, Vint joined us.

"Graham, Khan, Gil left Dave the location of a rumoured Rebel training base. I am taking the cargo speeder there now. Do you want to come?"

.

Even as the speeder moved towards the cave entrance, it was obvious that the base was no longer in use. As we drew closer, we could see scorch marks and dusty piles of rock and twisted metal.

"Well, that explains the TIE wreckage and laser scoring we saw earlier." Vint remarked as he brought the speeder in for a smooth landing just inside the half-ruined hangar bay. I looked round, noting the ruins of a flight-control booth, the torn and twisted struts that still managed to support the ceiling of the scorched cave, and a large, yet familiar hole in the centre of the cavern.

"Look, over there, does that look like a Mark II speeder lift to you?"

Vint looked at where I was pointing.

"Yes, it does. Khan, get out the climbing gear. The lift will not be working, and we want to see what is down there."

"I'll go."

Vint looked at me before nodding.

"Alright. We'll set up the winch and lower you. When you get down, give us a report on what is down there. If it is interesting, we'll bring the Home over and help ourselves."

As he said that, Khan threw the climbing harness to me. I put it on, making sure that I could still draw my Ryyk blade, and then walked over to them as they finished assembling the winch above the hole.

"Ready when you are." I said as I picked up the glow-rod and comm unit.

Khan strapped me to the end of the cable as I sat on the edge. When he grunted in satisfaction, I pushed myself over the edge of the hole and hung, rotating slowly, just underneath the hatch.

"Lower away."

As I descended, I played the light from the glow-rod over the walls of the shaft before pointing it down.

"Approaching bottom."

"Okay, slowing your descent."

I watched as the lift platform came towards me, and oriented myself for a soft landing. As I landed. I pointed my glow-rod at the entrance to the hanger, and gasped in amazement.

"What is it?"

I stepped forward, trying to say what I saw.

"I see four A-wings, looks like they are in good condition. Although I am not sure, I think that I see some Headhunters as well, although they could be X-wings, hard to tell in this light. Hold on."

I unhooked myself from the cable and stepped into the hangar.

"The A-wings are dusty, but they do not seem to be damaged."

I hauled myself onto one of the A-wings and climbed into its cockpit, hitting the system start-up switch, I was surprised by the sudden activity.

"Start-up sequence on first A-wing operational, no errors detected in software. Starting hardware-examination algorithm, no structural defects detected. Accessing maintenance log."

As I hit the final button, a list scrolled up the screen.

"Looks like the final entry in the log was about two weeks prior to the Battle of Yavin. For antiques, these have sure lasted."

"Who is there?"

I snapped off my glow-rod and ducked down into the cockpit. Lowering my voice, I whispered into me comm.

"I just heard a voice. I think I need some backup."

"Copy, Khan is coming down now, Knave Home reports that it is ready to launch, ETA four minutes"

"I need backup now, not in four minutes!" I whispered frantically.

I drew my blade and listened hard. A footfall sounded just to the left of my A-wing. I quickly dived out of the cockpit and dropped down on the right-hand side, ducking with my back against one of the landing legs.

"I said, who is there?"

I turned my head blindly, searching for the source of the surprisingly cultured voice. Suddenly light flooded in as four glow-rods flew through the air from the lift shaft, landing in a rough square that illuminated most of the hangar, flooding my hiding place with light. Spotting a humanoid shape silhouetted against one of the glow-rods, I launched myself at it, attempting to tackle it and bring it down.

.

I opened my eyes slowly and tried to focus against the pain that flooded through my skull. A mechanical voice spoke.

"Sir. I believe that he is coming round."

"Good thing too. He's been out for over a full day."

I grabbed my head to try to stop the ringing. An instant later, a hypospray hissed against my arm and the pain receded. I managed to sit up just as Dave leaned over me.

"How are you?"

I groaned slightly before asking a question of my own.

"What happened? And what are you doing here?"

Dave smiled.

"Well, you called needing help, so Vint called me, and I flew over in the Home. Vint told me over the comlink that he had given Khan four glow-rods and a blaster, and had got a laser rifle for himself. They slid down the cable and Khan threw the glow-rods into the hangar. They saw a shape and just as they were about to shoot, you leapt at it, headbutted it and collapsed. It leaned over, picked you up and carried you into the darkness, with Khan and Vint in hot pursuit, bouncing off the starfighters and tripping over cables. Khan finally caught up with it as it placed you on a bench and activated a Too-one-bee droid. It was then that he found out that your mysterious voice was in fact a modified protocol droid, who was very upset that he had inadvertently injured you."

I groaned again, this time out of embarrassment.

"So I called for maximum backup because of a droid?"

Dave nodded.

"Yes. Don't worry, Cybo has been very helpful, he showed us the power generation unit, which Khan was able to jury-rig for now, and has helped us to inventory the remains of the base, as well as telling us what happened to it."

"What did happen?"

Dave sighed.

"It fits in with some of what we know. Vint's cousin was a Rebel, and apparently he was stationed here. Turland Hack. He was a Flight Controller, and he had apparently taken a certain rookie under his wing, so to speak." He paused in embarrassment at his inadvertent joke. "We do not know who that rookie was, but we do know that the rookie was a local pilot. Anyway, the Empire somehow discovered the base, and launched an attack on it. Three TIE's managed to do a strafing run on the base, killing all the personnel as well as causing severe damage to the launching cavern via system feedback. The instruments continued to function for long enough for Cybo to witness the destruction of the three TIE's by the rookie."

"And Turland?"

"He died in the attack. He refused to abandon his post during the attack, and managed to send out a call for help before he died."

I blinked, finally catching up with my thoughts.

"Who is Cybo?"

"See-Bee-Zero-Nine-Delta, to give him his full name. He is a modified protocol droid who was manumitted several years prior to the Battle of Yavin. He learnt how to fly a Fighter in combat, and is an Ace, having seven kills to his credit."

I sat up in shock.

"You're kidding!"

Dave shook his head.

"I'm serious. Seven kills, his own A-wing and rank of lieutenant. Anyway, he was very helpful, it seems that he spent most of his time trapped here in droid-sleep, so that he could retain his sanity. He has shown us the base, and has agreed to join our happy band in our search for the Rebel Alliance, although he has set a few conditions."

I blinked.

"To start with, we junk our Imperial fighters and use the Rebel fighters here. Since there are four A-wings, four X-wings and two Y-wings fully operational and several others that can be salvaged for spares, that is no real hardship. There are also large stocks of missiles and torpedoes here, so we can stock our armoury to the air-vents with them. There are seven R2 units operational, so we will have our choice of droids for the fighters. We now also have two medical droids in our large band, fully equipped with a Bacta tank and over fifty gallons of pure Bacta and six hundred gallons of Ambori ready for use. Golanth and Slade are currently overseeing the creation of a sickbay on the Home in the lower-aft secondary cargo area."

I slumped back against my cushions in shock.

"You will have to dump your Gunboat, though. Cybo hates the Imps and their equipment with every circuit in him."

I sat up and smiled.

"I don't mind, I've always wanted to fly an X-wing. That's why you had to set up a seven-level password security system on yours. What's Khan going to fly, now that we can upgrade our fighters?"

Dave smiled again.

"He instantly claimed one of the X-wings, one that had been slightly modified for use by an unknown pilot of approximately the same size. Golanth found a similarly-modified Y-wing, and claimed that. As we speak, they are helping to reconfigure the Home's hangars to hold the new craft. I've decided to accept Cybo as a fully-fledged fighter pilot."

I shook my head in disbelief.

"Oh, Cybo showed me something, a personal diary of a Jedi who arrived a day prior to the attack. The Jedi is dead but, well, you'll have to see for yourself."

.

The briefing room darkened slightly and the screen showed static for a few seconds before clearing and showing a larger-than-life human male. He glanced down, as if checking something, and then started talking.

"Personal log of Jedi Knight Jorius C'baoth. Third day of Khaluumn, year of Kalath. I have just arrived at the Rebel Alliance's Tatooine base, and have met with their base commander. During the meeting, I asked to join the Rebel Alliance, and have been accepted. My exact role is uncertain, but my lightsaber and telekinetic skills mean that I will probably be either part of an infiltration team, or a commando unit. Either way, I will soon see action. For their part, the Alliance has promised to search for my son, Jorias, who was stolen from me on Corellia by a group of Bounty Hunters. I have given them a lock of his hair, and they have extracted a sample of his DNA from it. If they come across any boy who matches his description, they will do a quick DNA check to see if it is him. Hopefully, he is still out there somewhere, waiting for me. Turland Hack, the man who located me at Mos Eisley, has been regaling me with stories about his new friend, a rookie pilot called. . . what the?"

Behind him, red lights flashed, and a siren wailed. He turned round, just as the screen flickered and blanked out. Dave turned to face me.

"Jorius was killed an instant after the computer stopped recording. The DNA sequence was never used to find his son, and this base was abandoned."

I turned to face him, confusion written on my face.

"Graham, I checked three times while you were out cold. I have told all the others, and they have all checked the evidence. I called all the medical droids in the base, as well as the R2 units for additional computational analysis, and they concurred with our findings. We know who Jorias C'baoth is."

I smiled.

"Don't tell me, it's, lets see, Han Tharallen. Yes?"

"No."

"Vint?"

"No. Not Vint."

"I know. You."

Dave shook his head slightly.

"Graham. The DNA sample in the computer and droid memory banks are a perfect match for your DNA. _You_ are Jorias C'baoth.

I stared at him.

"This is a joke, right?"

Dave shook his head.

"I have known for ages that you were unusual. Remember the slam-ball games we used to play, even the balls that no-one else could hit, you could. Kal and Kay swear blind that you have seen through all of their jokes and pranks, including their pseudo-telepathy trick, which had _me_ fooled for ages. Khan has never stopped boasting about how you, despite having never met a Wookie before, to the best of our knowledge, learned to understand and speak his language within two weeks of him rescuing you from the ledge after you attempted to rob our building. During our flight from Corellia, you outflew all of the TIE's, never missing a single shot. The DNA check only confirmed what I suspected. Graham, you are a Jedi."

"Are.. are you sure?"

"Yes."

I thought about it. Me, a Jedi Knight, guardian of law and order. Son of a Jedi. Impossible.

"Here, look at this."

I looked at the datapad that Dave was holding. The screen was divided into two sections, both of which held a DNA strand graphic.

"What am I looking at?"

"Your DNA is on the left. The DNA sample provided by Jorius is on the right. They are identical. You are Jorias."

I stood up in a daze, excused myself and walked out of the hall. Walking at random down the darkened corridors, I entered a deserted room and sat down on the bed, thinking hard about what Dave had said. Just as I felt that I had convinced myself that I was not a Jedi, I looked up and froze. On the table opposite the bed on which I was sitting, there was a pale grey cylindrical tube about twenty centimetres in length. One end was almost smooth, while the other ended in four spikes spaced evenly round the rim. I stood up and stared at it before slowly picking it up. Pressing a switch, I gazed at the beam of bright white light that sprang into existence from between the spikes. Switching off the lightsaber, I placed it back on the table and prowled round the room, opening cupboards and examining the contents. One cupboard contained a sealed box topped with an old keypad. With a flash of inspiration, I entered the name Jorias. With a creak, the box opened, and a hologram of Jorius sprung into existence.

"My son, If you are listening to this, then I am dead. By now, you know who you are, and want to know your history. I will tell you. You are from the C'baoth line of Jedi, a line almost as famed as the Halcyons. While the Halcyons are noted for their mental powers, the C'baoth line is noted for our skills in the kinetic aspects of the Force. We also, unlike the Halcyons, have nominal skills in the areas in which we do not excel. Your great-grandfather, my grandfather, Jorias, whom you are named after, was able to lift an entire battle-cruiser with his mind alone. Your Grandfather, Jorus, was weaker in the kinetic aspect, but had a better grasp of the mind-powers. I myself have virtually no mental abilities, but am one of the strongest Jedi, in a kinetic sense. I do not know your strengths as yet, but I am hopeful that you can become a full Jedi. I have left you my lightsaber, as my father left it to me. Wear it with pride. I also give you my Holocron, which is inside this box. Listen to it, learn from it. I cannot teach you, but the Holocron can. First, though, you must travel to the planet Dagobah, to see the Jedi Master Yoda, if he is still alive. He will teach you, as he taught my family for eleven generations. The co-ordinates for his dwelling are in the Holocron. Farewell, my son, and may the Force be with you."

As the image faded, I saw a cube inside the box. I carefully reached into the box and picked the cube up.

"A Holocron!"

I jumped and dropped the cube back into the box. Spinning round, I saw Haisani.

"Don't creep up on me like that."

"Sorry."

I paused and stared at him.

"How did you know what that was?"

Haisani looked embarrassed.

"I, um, trained with a Jedi who had one several years before I joined Knave Squadron. I never mentioned it before, because I did not want to risk exposing you the Empire in your eagerness to be different."

As he sat down on a chair and continued his tale, I picked up the Holocron and placed it in my pocket.

"During my appreticeship in the latter days of the Clone Wars, I travelled to Socorra to train as a Jedi under the tutelage of a great Arkanian Jedi Master, Master Airsword. I was the most adept of his five pupils. I excelled at the exercises he set, and helped the other pupils to improve their fledgling skills. I learnt the skills of telepathy, healing, precognition and, surprisingly, levitation. I excelled in the non-physical branches, influenced perhaps by the fact that I "see" in the Force. One day, I went on a quest for a rare jewel for my lightsaber, which I was in the process of building. I was twelve kilometres away from the camp when I heard a massive explosion. I hurried back, but I was too late, they were all dead. I searched the camp for survival packs, and found, among other things, several Jedi reader disks and a large stash of credits. The Holocron, with its Gatekeeper, Bodo Baas, had been taken for the Emperor, I used the credits to flee Socorra and eventually travelled to Corellia, where I joined Knave Squadron, and met you. I knew that there was something special about you, and now I know what."

As I thought about this, he reached into his sash and pulled out a cylinder about twenty centimetres in length. Pressing a button on the side, he raised it as a blade of deep violet light extended from one end.

"I finished my lightsaber, and constantly practice whenever I can. I am willing to try and teach you how to use your Jedi powers, whatever they are, if you are willing to learn how to use them."

"And if I don't want to use them?"

He turned his head towards me, and I seemed to sense a type of focused concentration trained on me.

"Are you willing to let your powers idle? Is it not better to have them in case you need them?"

I thought about it some more.

"I guess so. I'll try."

"No!"

At his sharp voice, I turned to face him.

"What do you mean?"

He smiled slightly.

"As my master so often said, 'There is no such thing as trying. You either succeed or fail, but you cannot simply just try. If you fail, look at what you did, and see if what you considered failure was in fact a victory that you did not expect, or aim for.' He repeated it many times, and claimed that it was taught to him by a great Jedi Master called Yoda."

Before I could reply, I heard raised voices down the passage, one of them completely unfamiliar to me.

.

I burst through the door, rolling to dodge any attack, ending up in a kneeling position with my ryyk blade in a guard position and my blaster pointing to the scarred stranger, who took a step backwards in shock. An instant later, the door behind me flew open again and Haisani skidded to a halt beside me, his activated blue lightsaber held in a vertical guard. The room suddenly became silent and everyone stared at us.

"By the Force! Is that a lightsaber?"

I glared at the strangely familiar person as I slowly stood up, my blaster pointing squarely at his midsection. Behind me, Haisani deactivated his lightsaber and hung it on his belt. Dave smiled slightly and stepped forward, placing one hand over my blaster.

"Graham, Haisani, I want you to meet Garik Loran."

My blaster fell onto the floor, and only extreme self-control prevented my blade and jaw from following it. Behind me, Haisani gasped in recognition.

"Garik Loran? The "Face"? Star of _The Black Bantha_, _Jungle Flutes_, _Win or die_, _Loka Hask; undercover Imperial_ and _Hyperspace Adventurers?_"

I realised that I was starting to babble, and managed to close my mouth. Face just smiled with a wry expression on his face.

"Yes. That's me."

"But you died! You were killed by a group of Alliance Extremists prior to the destruction of the First Death Star!"

Face shook his head.

"No. I was _captured_ by a group of _ex_-Alliance extremists, hard-liners who wanted to send a message through the Empire, delivering a major blow to the Empire's morale. However, they decided to show me first what the Empire truly was. I got the hard-core briefing, and you would be terrified at some of the things that the Empire did. Then, just as they were about to kill me, a group of Imperial commandos stormed the building in an attempt to free me. Both sides annihilated each other, and only a few Imperial commandos were left alive, as well as me. I was a real mess, physically and emotionally, so I hid. The Empire, unable to find me, claimed that the kidnapping was Rebel-approved, and that the Rebellion had ordered my death. I fled back to my family to recover, and now that I am well again, I have decided to join the Alliance. However, I need an starfighter, preferably an A-wing. Once I have it, it's a case of Rebel Alliance, here I come." Garik smiled slightly and struck a heroic pose before speaking in a rolling voice. "'For the remainder of my life, I will willingly risk my body, life and soul for the advancement of the cause that I truly believe in. I will try my utmost to fulfil my destiny, and strike down the enemies of truth and justice.'"

I smiled at the speech from _Loka Hask_ as I re-sheathed my blade.

"All right. You are joining the Alliance, you said. Can we come with you?"

Face shook his head.

"No. If more than one person shows up, my contact will flee. However, I will mention that you are seeking to join the Alliance. They will pass the word to their agents, and I am sure that one will approach you soon. May I suggest that you decide on a password or special token so that they can identify themselves?"

I quickly spoke up.

"Let them bring a signed copy of _The Black Bantha_."

Face nodded slowly, a wry smile on his face.

"And I am willing to bet that that is the only one of my holodramas that you haven't got at present."

I felt my cheeks turn red, and looked down at the floor in embarrassment. Face laughed softly.

"Don't worry. It's a good idea, and virtually foolproof as well. It's nice to know that I still have many fans throughout the galaxy. I only wish that I had more time to get to know you. Even so, and despite your sudden and extremely interesting entrance, it has been good meeting you."

As he finished the sentence, he held out his hand. I looked at for a moment before tentatively reaching out and clasping it briefly. He smiled again, let go and turned to speak to Dave.

"You'll get the credits in fourteen days time, on Obroa-skai. You already have the account details. I will do my best to persuade an agent to meet you, but considering the whacking that Sate Pestage is giving the Alliance, I can't promise anything but the credits."

He turned back to me.

"Well, Graham, I'll see you round. And remember, 'When all seems lost, and hope is far away, . . .'"

"'. . . keep searching, for one day the rewards of patience will be yours.' Jedi Thar to his pupil, _Dawn Of A New Era_."

Face nodded and turned to Dave.

"You have a true genius there. The only way to improve him would be to make him into a Jedi."

Dave smiled and started to lead him away, into the passage that led to the hangar. As he did so, he whispered something into Face's ear. Face jerked as if startled, glanced at me, and then looked hard at Dave, who nodded, smiling slightly. They entered the passage, and a few words bounced back into the hall.

". . two Jedi in the group? I'll make sure that I mention that to the . . ."

.

I sat back down on the bed in my Father's room, and pulled out the Holocron, placing it on the desk. Haisani sat down on the chair and leaned forwards.

"What do I do?"

Haisani turned his head in a mock glance at me.

"It's your Holocron, you activate it."

Under his scrutiny, I reached out and pressed a carving on it that seemed to stand out somehow. The air above the Holocron thickened and a short green figure formed slowly, condensing into a wrinkled, robed non-human.

"Greetings, Jedi. Yoda am I, Gatekeeper of Holocron. What wish you?"

I glanced at Haisani, then turned back to face the shimmering, hunched figure.

"What can you tell me about Jorius C'Baoth, and his son Jorias?"

The figure seemed to freeze for a second.

"Jorius C'Baoth. Great Jedi, wanted only peace for Galaxy. Fought in Clone Wars, he did. As Jedi trainee. Showed promise. Powerful mind, strong body. Son of Joras C'Baoth, himself good Jedi. His son, Jorias, as baby, showed promise. Stolen, he was, stolen by bounty hunters who tried to kill Jorius. They fled, but not far enough. Tracked them down, Jorius did, tracked them down and brought them to justice, even the ones on Myrkr. But no sign of baby. Baby lost somewhere, never found. Jorius tried to find baby, but could not. Why ask this question do you?"

"Where is Dagobah?"

The image gazed at me.

"Asked only to tell Jorias, I was. Only tell Jorias where Dagobah is."

"I am Jorias!"

The image blinked and leaned forward, staring at me.

"Could be Jorias, only one way to know. Place hand on Holocron, test you I will. See if you Jorias truly are."

I reached out and placed my hand on the top of the Holocron. Yoda gazed down at me for a few seconds, then nodded.

"Jorias you are, go to Dagobah you must. Teach you will I when you arrive. Teach you to be true Jedi, to save galaxy from Empire."

"But the Emperor's dead."

Yoda looked at me and shook his head slowly.

"Not dead. Gone elsewhere. Is said that many lives has Emperor. Prophecy says that Emperor lives again, weak but alive. Can only be killed by Jedi. Killed by Jedi master, forever. Only way to kill Evil One. If One Who Walks The Sky fails, only hope is Stolen Son, or Machine King."

I shivered slightly.

"How do I get to Dagobah?"

The figure leaned back onto empty air.

"Need ship. Will guide you personally. Will guide you to right place, safe place to land. Lead you to living Jedi Master Yoda, I will. Teach you, he will. Teach you to be a Jedi Knight, a Jedi Master!"

.

"Are you sure?"

I stood in front of Dave with Haisani standing just behind me as backup.

"Yes. I spoke extensively with the image of a Jedi Master contained in the Holocron. It will guide us to Dagobah, where Jedi Master Yoda will train me. Once I am a full Jedi, we will have a better bargaining position with the Alliance when we join, and a better chance to fight off any Imperials who try to capture us. Think of the legends surrounding Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. If the Jedi Master on Dagobah can train me even half as well as Anakin was trained. . ."

I left the sentence unfinished and watched as Dave thought about it. He leaned forwards slightly and gave me another stare.

"We should have enough time to go to Dagobah and find the Jedi. If he will take you, we will continue without you and Haisani and come back for you at a pre-arranged time. If he decides to come with us, so much the better. Either way, we need to get to Obroa-skai in two weeks. Where exactly is this planet Dagobah?"

I pulled out the Holocron and placed it on his desk. Activating it, I smiled at Dave through the rapidly forming Jedi Master.

"I'll let you ask him yourself."


	4. Chapter 3

**INTERLUDE**

.

_ Rogue Squadron, under the command of Wedge Antilles, has been reformed and has already managed to capture Coruscant. The new Rogue Squadron includes the Jedi-to-be Corran Horn, who has told Intelligence of the existence of Knave Squadron. With the additional information that there are two Jedi in the squadron supplied by Garik "Face" Loran, already on his third starfighter, and the bounty placed on Knave Squadron by three Imperial Warlords, the entire Alliance has been told to find more infornmation about the near-mythical squadron, which, unknown to them, has landed on the New-Republic allied world of Eiattu VI, ruled by ex-Rogue Isplourrdacartha Estillo._

_._

**PERSONNEL CHANGE**

_**.**_

_Knave 9 :- Was :- Marcus Farlander (Human male from Corellia)_

_ Now :- Cybo (CB09-Delta, Manumitted protocol/combat droid from Tatooine)_

==808==

**CHAPTER THREE**

.

_Jedi Knights :- Protectors of the Old Republic, the Jedi were characterised by their incredible mental powers (including psychokinesis, telepathy, levitation and precognition), lightsabers and total dedication to their duty. When the Empire rose from the ashes of the Old Republic, a systematic purge of the Jedi was instigated. Two notable Jedi, General Obi-wan Kenobi and Jedi Master Yoda, survived by going into hiding. Under their tuition, Luke Skywalker came into his full Jedi powers and became the first of the new Jedi, collecting other Force-strong individuals and surviving Jedi to form a new border that now stands between the New Republic and chaos. Other Jedi have also appeared, some from hiding during the Purges, others (such as the Dathomirian witches or the Jensaarai) as independant force traditions or descendents of Jedi..._

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

I sat at a table in the back of the cantina, flanked by Khan and Slade. In front of me, my drink gathering condensation on the chilled metal mug. Khan turned and growled questioningly.

"No, Khan, I'm not depressed."

Slade smiled slightly.

"Graham, you have been sitting there for ages, just looking at your drink. If I didn't know how powerful you really are, I'd have thought that you were trying to lift it with your mind."

As he finished the sentence, I _lifted_ the mug off the table, reaching out with one hand to cover the movement from the other patrons of the establishment. Setting it back down, I started to talk, explaining what was on my mind.

"Two years ago, we finally went to Dagobah with hopes of finding a Jedi Master. Instead, we find a hand-written scroll containing a message for me, saying that I was to learn from the Holocron as the Jedi Master in question had died. I know that I'm making progress, but the Holocron cannot demonstrate what it means when it tells me to do something. Haisani is almost as much in the dark as I am, and although we can practice to a certain extent on each other, I just cannot do many of the things that he can do. I can just about read other peoples thoughts, but I cannot influence them, or alter them. I can lift huge objects, and make myself fly for a limited distance, but I cannot create illusions, see the future beyond a few minutes, or see things happening far away. I am only good in combat. Since leaving Dagobah, we have had clashes with Warlord Zsinj on several occasions, we have been forced to flee the Core Regions by a scarred warlord, the Pentastar Alignment has placed a bounty on us for the damage the Reaper sustained during its attempt to capture us, Prince-Admiral Krennel has sworn revenge on us for destroying his artificial hand when he tried to lead a group of commandos to capture us and we just barely managed to get away from a blue-skinned Imperial Admiral in the Unknown Regions that could do everything but actually read our minds. We just made it to here, even though the Admiral was hot on our heels until a mere ten days ago."

Khan suddenly went rigid and stared at the entrance. I glanced over just in time to see six Trandoshans enter.

"Uh-oh."

Even as I nodded agreement with Slade's assessment of the situation, one of the reptiles glanced over, and locked eyes with Khan. Slade quickly slid to the edge of his seat, as did Khan. I glanced underneath the table, and experimentally lifted it a fraction before setting it back down. By this time, the other Trandoshans had spotted us, and were staring at us, concentrating on Khan.

"What do they want?" I asked.

Khan replied quietly, and I gasped in shock, glancing at his black pelt. I slowly lowered my left hand down and grasped my lightsaber. As I got a good grip on it, the six Trandoshans had started to move towards us. Four of them formed a close diamond formation, with the other two moving slightly sideways to take point as they headed towards us, hissing at each other in their language.

"You and the human boy can leave." rasped the lizard nearest to Slade. "We have a blood-oath against this one, for the death of our brother."

Khan growled in reply. The Trandoshans looked at me quizzically.

"He says that it was self-defence. Your brother attacked him without provocation."

The Trandoshan turned to face Khan.

"Does not matter. You killed him, now we will kill you and take your pelt to decorate his tomb."

Khan bared his teeth in defiance, and I took that as a sign to release the pent-up Force that I had been accumulating. Propelled by both my mind and body, the table flew straight into the middle four Trandoshans, clipping the one nearest Slade. Before the final one could react, Khan had dived on him, preventing him from drawing his skinning-knife or firing his blaster. I stood up and stepped forward to the groaning heap under the table, removing my Lightsaber from under my tunic hem. Beside me, Slade had pulled out a hidden vibroblade, and was restraining the other Trandoshan. The table shifted as the four Trandoshans underneath prepared to throw it off them, so I ignited my lightsaber while drawing my Ryyk blade with my other hand. Instantly, the table stopped moving and four pairs of frightened eyes stared at the lightsaber blade. Glancing sideways, I saw that Slade's captive had ceased struggling and was staring with wide eyes at my weapon. A roar on my other side, combined with a loud double crash, told me that Khan had managed to knock out the final bounty hunter.

"I do not want to kill you, so you will not try to stop us." I stated, hoping that my voice was not reflecting my fear. "You will not come after us, and you will accept that self-defence against an unprovoked attack is not a valid reason for a blood-feud, otherwise I will be forced to 'defend' myself and my friends. You would not survive such a 'defence'."

The four hunters under the table nodded slightly. The fifth spoke up, slightly muffled by the fact that Slade was gripping his throat..

"We will not pursue you or the Wookie, and will spread the word that he is protected by a Jedi. The blood-feud will be declared void. This I swear by the Scorekeeper herself."

I nodded to acknowledge the most binding vow a Trandoshan could make, and deactivated my lightsaber. Slade dropped his captive, moved close to Khan and together we exited the building, emerging into the light of day.

"I did not know that Trandoshans were present on Eiattu VI" I said.

"Does not matter. The blood-feud has been declared void." rumbled Slade.

I shook my head slightly.

"Where was I before the fight?"

Khan rumbled at me.

"Imperial Admiral. Right. We land here, with coolant pouring from our engines and all of our fighters half-ruined. If it was not for the fact that Cybo was a droid, the loss of his A-wing's canopy to that Turbolaser bolt would have killed him. As it is, he is going to look strange with that replacement battle-droid arm. Is it just me, or are we having a run of bad luck?"

"Company." Slade muttered.

Khan and I both looked back at the rapidly approaching constabulary.

"Talk about fast responses to cantina brawls. Do we fight or run?" I asked.

Khan shook his head slowly as he fastened his bowcaster securely to his bandoleer. Slade glanced at him, and then fastened his blaster into his holster, slipping his vibroblade into his boot. I returned my Ryyk blade to its scabbard and placed my lightsaber onto my thigh-clip, but I did not strap it in place. A few seconds later, the squad of peace-keepers had surrounded us. One of them stepped forward.

"Are you three Graham, Khanchassata and Slade Hallon?" he asked in a trembling voice. I worked hard to suppress a smile. Khan merely nodded regally.

"You are requested to attend the court of Her Majesty Isplourrdacartha Estillo pertaining to matters of state."

"And if we refuse?" Slade growled menacingly.

The officer gulped and took a half-step backwards before recovering.

"It is not exactly a request, if you know what I mean."

I shrugged.

"Well, may as well go and see what Her Majesty wants to discuss with us. Shall we go, officer?"

Looking relieved, he started to turn, pausing just long enough to say "Walk this way." before finishing his turn and marching off. Khan, Slade and I exchanged winks, and proceeded after him, mimicking his stylised march as well as we could for a few paces, before reverting back to our normal walks.

.

"Khanchassata, Graham and Slade Hallon, Pilots of Knave Squadron!"

I winced at the excessive volume employed by the Seneschal as he announced our entrance. Just in front of the dais, a group of people turned, revealing themselves to be minor dignitaries. Suddenly, I spotted several members of Knave Squadron, and within seconds, I had spotted all the rest. Khan snuffled in surprise an instant later as Haisani bounded up and joined us.

"Good to see you, or perceive at any rate." he said. "The Queen is eager to meet you, especially you, Graham. She has been stuck listening to a bore all day, and only a Jedi skill will extract her from the conversation."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"She managed to send me a note, asking for Jedi aid. I think that it is your skills, rather than mine, that she needs."

As we approached, I saw a tall, brown-haired woman looking round almost frantically while a short, fat man harangued her about a exceedingly minor point in some treaty or other.

"Is the tall woman the Queen?" I asked, glancing at Haisani for confirmation. When he nodded, I slipped in behind the fat man. I winked impishly at the Queen and _lifted_ the man three metres above the floor. The room instantly went silent as everyone stared at the frantically-struggling man who was floating above their heads. I slid him sideways to over a clear area and carefully lowered him to the ground, where he collapsed onto his knees and grabbed the floor to prevent himself taking to the air again. I turned back to see the Queen shaking her head with amused amazement. An instant later, Haisani stepped to my side and bowed slightly.

"Queen Isplourrdacartha Estillo, it is my pleasure to introduce my close friend and squadron-mate, Jedi Padawan Graham."

As I bowed slightly, she smiled and whispered, "Please, call me Plourr."

Haisani seemed suprised for an instant, but recovered almost at once. A wry smile on Plourr's face showed that she had noticed his shock.

"Graham, thank you for your actions. I have been trying to get away from that old bore for ages. If I had that kind of power, I dare say that no-one would dare come within a klick of me."

I smiled at her, unable to think of a reply. Dave chose that moment to step in.

"Plourr has asked us to act as advisors and trainers to aid her in expanding her planetary defence fleet."

"By twenty-four new starfighters and a maurauder corvette." Plourr interrupted.

"Yes. Well, the corvette crew is trained already, ex-mercenaries who want to settle down and raise kids, so all we have to do is train the starfighter pilots. Plourr has used her skills to choose the best potential pilots, and the Imperials left a training centre that I have asked to be converted to aid us in training them in Alliance fighters. We will keep our fighters, and until the defence fleet volunteers-"

"All twenty-four would-be starpilots."

"- are trained, we are, to all intents and purposes, the defence fleet."

I smiled. "Two Jedi, a Wookie, a pair of Twi'leks, a Verpine, a Wolfman, a Cathar, three humans and a droid. I dare say that the Imperials are going to shiver with fear when they hear that we are guarding this planet."

Plourr laughed again. "Wrong. I am also a pilot, and I still own my X-wing from the days when I was in Rogue Squadron, and my husband still flies his souped-up Z-95. Add two members of royalty to your list, as well as a Z-95 squadron, and you will be correct."

"We'll have the Imps running in terror."

Dave glanced at me. "Well, Graham is correct so far, Your Majesty, but there is a slight problem."

"Dave, forget the flowery language. We're both pilots. What is it?"

Dave sighed slightly. "I know that you will not be really happy with this, but I am afraid that I must ask you, once we have trained your 'defence fleet', to contact the Rebel Alliance and use your influence to get them to accept us as years ago, we fled the Empire and decided to join the Alliance, but until now, circumstances have conspired against us."

Plourr nodded.

"When I heard you had landed, I contacted the Alliance to see if they had information about you. They have already agreed to take you on if you can train my fleet, thus saving them several thousand credits, and a lot of pain and anger from me. They also sent this, for some reason, with a message that it was to be given to Graham."

My eyes opened wide as she pulled out a holovid cartridge from her sash. I took it and turned it over, revealing the sprawling signature of Garik "Face" Loran.

.

I pulled back on the yoke, sending my TIE Fighter into a steep climb round a spinning asteroid. As soon as the pursuing X-wing had vanished from my scope, I cut round a smaller asteroid and looped round it, appearing on the X-wing's aft. Hitting the fire buttons, I sent eight bolts of green fire into the rear shields, collapsing them and scoring the hull. The rookie pilot attempted to dodge, and dived straight into a spinning asteroid.

"Bet that hurt."

My cockpit shook as a red laser bolt grazed the inside of my port solar panel. Reacting instinctively, I pulled up and spun to my port. It was obviously the last move that the pursuer expected, and while he was still tracking me, his wing clipped a small asteroid, sending him spinning straight into a larger asteroid. My cockpit went black and the back of the simulator opened. Sighing, I scrambled out and stood in front of the X-wing simulators, which opened up to reveal two embarrassed would-be pilots.

"Can you tell me _what_ you thought you were doing?" I asked as they climbed out of their simulators.

"We split up to try and outflank you." said the older of the two.

"What did I tell you about true teamwork?" I demanded. The younger one shrugged with an embarrassed expression.

"When you stay in formation, your offensive strength is three times more than if you attack the same target individually. You are also less vulnerable, since you have someone to protect your backside when things get rough."

Both pilots were flushing with embarrassment by now.

"I may only be half your age, but I survived by staying in tight formation until I was told by the leader to pull out. Even then, I stay with my wing, no matter what. How do the Imps attack? They use their formation as a battering ram, they use their formation to provide them with offensive inertia, which can only be countered with another formation. Formation flying is designed to save you, not to get you killed."

By this time, both pilots were squirming with embarrassment, staring everywhere except at me. I walked over to the wall console and called up a new programme.

"Get back in there, and this time, you are going to do an obstacle course. Stay in loose formation, one diagonally in front of the other, and this time remember to actually _stay_ in formation. You will get graded on how well you do both in time and accuracy, and in keeping in formation. Swap places at the end of every level."

They scrambled back into their cockpits and pulled them shut. I sighed and activated three of the six viewing screens., targeting one on each X-wing, and one on the formation centrepoint. My speech seemed to have done the trick, and I watched one X-wing take the lead, with the other hanging back. I opened the comm channel and listened in to their chatter.

"- stay back for now. If you get a clear shot on a target, take it. _He_'ll be watching, and if we want any free time for the next three weeks, we are going to have to impress _Him_."

I smiled and cut the comm feed before settling back and watching their fighters thread the maze of gates, walls and free-floating platforms.

.

". . .and just as he thought he was safe, Wham!"

Plourr flung her arms apart in an imitation of an exploding squint just as I entered the room.

"His wingmate started grovelling as soon as he saw me take out the squint with that single 1.5 klick shot into the engines. I swear, you have never, ever heard such a streak of yellow!"

"What did you do?" I asked.

She grinned evilly.

"I used my lasers to trim his solar panels and fuse his engines. Two hours later, the Home One tractored him in. His first action after coming aboard was to look at me climbing out of my X-wing, and faint."

Plourr placed the back of one hand on her forehead and pretended to collapse in a dead faint. The entire room exploded into laughter and gradually quietened down. Plourr turned to face me.

"So, Graham. How are the gruesome twosome coming on?"

"Terrible." I shook my head. "They seem to hate the idea that they should stay in formation, have the feeling that they are invulnerable and cannot dodge asteroids. Apart from that, they're coming along fine."

"So what happened today?"

"I ran a TIE twin-X simulation with them. Vaped them both within a minute, so I put them back down to level one for a while. Basic formation-agility training. I overheard them say that they knew that I would be watching, so when they hit level nine, I entered the sim in an eyeball."

Plourr grinned. "So what happened?"

"They split like scared scurriers. However, I was just closing in on one, when the other scraped me with a snap-shot, sending me spinning. When I had recovered, they were back in formation, and remained in it, no matter what I did. They eventually got me. I think that the lectures and extra exercises have finally clicked."

Dave interrupted.

"So now you've got them to consider accepting basic training, what next?"

I considered it before replying.

"For now, continue training. In six days, I think that we should do a full-squad exercise. We'll see then how well we've trained them, and if the twin twits can actually cope now that they know that formations are good for them."

"Agreed." said Vint, "For tonight though, I recommend an early night, and a training alert at five."

I grinned at that. The pilots we were training were fond of late nights, large drinks, and lie-ins.

"Tomorrow, we'll kick them into next week."

.

I climbed out of the simulator cockpit, impressed despite myself. The rest of Knave Squadron climbed out of their cockpits, wearing similar expressions. In the exercise, we had managed to defeat them, but only at a cost of eight of us, a kill ratio of three to one which, considering the inexperience and naturally independent nature of the trainees, was very impressive. I saw Plourr pacing nervously and waved at her. She waved back and walked over.

"I know that Dave will probably hate me for this, but how did it go?"

I smiled.

"Well, they are not quite New-Republic standard pilots yet, but they are certainly a match for a normal pirate force of up to twice their size. I would not recommend sending them against an Imp task-force except in an emergency, but short of that, they should be able to hold their own."

Dave came up beside me and nodded.

"I agree with Graham, and think that they are ready to officially join the planetary defence fleet."

Plourr smiled with relief.

"Well, I would hate to get rid of you this soon, and you still have two months to go before your contract expires. May I suggest that you join me in the celebration feast tomorrow, and let my mechanics finish upgrading the Knave Home's engines?"

As Dave nodded, Khan let out a roar of agreement. The other pilots nodded, with smiles on their faces. I suddenly realised that we had not given the news to the trainees, so I wriggled my way though the crowd and ran into the next room, where they were huddling, comparing notes on how they had been destroyed.

". . .so this squint pulls a move that I have only ever seen Graham do, a type of mutated triple spin with a loop thrown in for good measure, and drops in behind my wingmate. Naturally, I turn and shoot at him, but he somehow slides aside, and I nearly nail Raul instead. An instant later, my rear shields collapse and Graham shoots my port S-foils off, including the engines. Plastered against the side of my spinning cockpit, the last thing I see is Graham closing in, lasers ready to fire."

The other pilots groaned.

"That's nothing, Maar." another one said. "I managed to vape a squint, but instantly, the wingmate came in howling for blood. Trying to dodge, I spun behind an asteroid, straight into the firing line of four of them, coming in from the side to hit you lot. They destroyed most of my systems, then just swept past and re-entered the fray, leaving me drifting for five minutes. Just as my R2 says that it is within seconds of giving me lasers and thrusters, the squint whose wingmate I vaped came racing past me, pursued by an X-wing, who clipped me and sent me spinning straight into an asteroid."

"So it was you I hit. Sorry."

"Apology accepted. Just don't do it again. We-"

"- are all recognised as being ready to take on anything short of an Imperial strike force." I interrupted

The group of pilots went silent, and they all turned to stare at me. The pilot who had been telling them about how I had vaped him stepped forward.

"But... you wiped us out."

"We are recognised as being above normal N.R. starpilot standards. You held your own against us for a long time, vaping all but four of us. That tells us that you can more than hold your own against any marauding pirates in the area."

Several pilots were grinning, and the others were catching on. Before I could continue, Plourr walked past me and stopped just in front of the pilots.

"Congratulations, Fire-claw and Sand-cat squadrons, you are now officially part of the Planetary Defence Fleet of Eiattu VI, outer sector patrol squads one and two. Starting from 0900 on the day after tomorrow, you will be assigned to Moonbase Beta for alternating three-day shifts, with Sand-cat taking the first shift."

There was a total silence for several seconds as they digested this bit of information, and then the room exploded into whoops and cheers of joy. An instant later, the explosion of joy was drowned in a sudden blare of sirens and alarms. A status screen in the corner of the room started to flash, indicating that the newly-installed planetary shields were being raised.

"What in the cloak of the Sith is going on?"

I stared round wildly, and then found my gaze rising up to the ceiling, and beyond it. I _looked_ beyond the atmosphere, and met a familiar presence.

"Sithspit. Its him! Blueskin! Send a call for N.R. reinforcements _at once_!"

Khan glanced at me in confusion, but Dave caught on almost at once.

"Thrawn? He's back?"

As I nodded, Plourr glanced at us with a quizzical expression.

"Can I have that again, with helpfiles enabled?"

"Thrawn is an Imperial, an Admiral as far as we know, probably higher, since his uniform is white instead of grey. What makes it even more impressive is that he isn't human, and you know how the Emperor felt about non-humans. He is an excellent strategist, and a cunning warrior. We ran into him in the Outer Rim regions, and managed to disable and then destroy his flagship in a running lightfight that lasted for nearly seven hours, and included a pirate group and a race we didn't recognise. The last transmission that we received from his escape shuttle was 'Well fought, but we shall meet again'."

Plourr looked worried.

"I don't think that Fire-claw and Sand-cat are ready to fight the Imps yet."

I nodded, a plan forming in my head. Turning, I ran to the status screen and keyed a tactical report.

"Sensors show two ISD's attacking the shields, tentative identification as the _Chimaera_ and the _Gundark's Claw_. They are situated fifty klicks apart over the north pole. Plourr, twelve minutes after our mark, drop the north/equator-three shield for thirty seconds. We'll go out and attack the _Chimaera_, the one that I believe Thrawn has chosen as his new flagship. He will probably call in reinforcements from the _Claw_ to prevent us from using our side-slam tactic on him again, last time we did that to him, we destroyed his VSD, the _Long Blade_, and both escorting dreadnoughts in a dramatic case of overkill. Once he has called in reinforcements, Fire-claw, Sand-cat and your squadron, Dragonwing, will exit through the North/equator-seven shield. Dragonwing will provide frontal running cover and Fire-claw will provide preliminary targeting information for Sand-cat. If they use the enhanced algorithms that Cybo, Golanth and Khan have been working on, they can launch their torps directly at the bridge of the _Claw_ from six clicks. With dual fire, two volleys at max speed should finish off the _Claw_. Once the ISD has been destroyed, they can do the same on the _Chimaera_ with Sand-cat providing targeting and Fire-claw firing the missiles."

Plourr nodded.

"And the Corvette?"

"It will stay under the shield, and provide covering fire during the time that the shields are dropped."

"Twelve minutes from when?"

"Our launch." replied Dave from behind me.

.

The howl of the air rushing past my cockpit died as we exited the atmosphere. Far ahead to our left and right, we could see the flickering of green that indicated the bombardment of the planetary shields by the two ships.

"Dave to groups two and three. Standard side-slam, but prepare to disengage at an instant's notice. X-wings, course two-seven-one mark two, stay just on the edge of shield harmonic interference, make them work to see you. Y-wings, course two-six-nine mark two, same instructions. Good luck, pray that the emergency transmission got past the jamming, and may the Force be with you."

I pulled left on my control stick and throttled down to ninety-percent thrust, thus allowing my engine wash to fade into the harmonics before it could be detected. Above my head, I saw Dave's A-wings race ahead, Jammers activated to call attention to themselves. I hit my transmission button.

"Okay, they'll be expecting us, so it will get hairy. We can expect to be the filling of an Imp sandwich. Comm silence in ten seconds, break when definitely detected. Let's hope that the signal got out, but don't count on it."

Gripping the control stick firmly, I stared ahead of us, and then glanced at the sensors. The front sensor screen showed a large number of green dots, while the rear sensor showed a single dot on the right just above the wire-frame of the planet. As I watched, the single dot suddenly spewed out a large number of smaller dots, which raced towards us on an intercept course. Checking the readings, I let out a low whistle.

"All of them? Scrambling the entire complement?"

A green laser flashed past me, jerking me out of my semi-trance. Rolling left, I dived towards the planet, with four TIE's on my tail.

"Graham, you're heading for the shield!"

I double-clicked acknowledgement of Haisani's message, and stared ahead as the planet loomed. Suddenly a spasm seemed to run through my body, and I hauled back on the control stick. The TIE's, caught flat-footed, raced past me and, an instant later, exploded into hemispherical clouds of shrapnel as they hit the shields.

"Four down."

Hauling back on my stick, I orientated myself directly into the middle of the lightfight, and boosted the engines to full. Setting my lasers to single fire, I held down the trigger and sliced through the milling cloud like a laser through Sullustan jam, emerging on the other side virtually unharmed.

As I pulled back to re-enter the lightfight, I saw two squadrons of TIE's closing in from above. Reacting instantly, I snap-rolled and fired a volley of laser fire into the massed cloud, scoring two direct hits. A third TIE flew through the expanding cylinders of debris, and came out with its transparisteel viewport holed and shattered, its pilot killed instantly by the shrapnel. An instant later, the TIE cloud seemed to hesitate, then it turned back.

"They're running!"

Dave's voice snapped back over the comm.

"Graham, take your group. Pursue and harry them. They're heading back to defend the _Claw_ from team Eiattu."

I nodded and set my lasers to dual fire. Reaching out, I _felt_ where each target was going to be, then I fired along that line. Several targets exploded, and then a sudden barrage of laser and ion cannon fire from the left decimated the survivors.

"What the?"

Even as I reacted to the unanticipated barrage, a full wing of B-wings flew past me in loose formation, swinging round to unleash another volley on the rapidly shrinking cloud of TIE's. My comm clicked, and a sharp voice issued from the speaker.

"General Salm to Knave Squadron. Brought some friends with me, mind if we join the party?"

"What friends?" I managed to say.

"Just a couple of ships, the _Home One_ and the _Mon Remonda_. The _Home One_ is engaging the Star Destroyer behind you, the _Mon Remonda_ is taking out the one that has been severely damaged by several squadrons of amazingly aggressive X-wings and Headhunters."

By the time that he had finished explaining, the last few TIE's were being methodically hunted down and destroyed by the heavy fighters. A new voice crackled across the comm.

"Graham, are you there?"

I paused for an instant, searching for the reason that the voice seemed familiar.

"Corran Horn to Graham. Do you copy?"

"Corran?!"

"Good to hear you. Look to your right."

I glanced over and saw a very familiar green-striped X-wing assuming secondary wingmate position just behind me. Beyond him, another X-wing kept in perfect formation.

"I see you, Corran. Who's your friend?"

"Knave Squadron is being escorted in by Shadow and Rogue Squadrons. Ooryl Qrygg and I came to escort you to the _Mon Remonda_. Come to heading one eight six mark three, I am lead."

I swung round and slotted into formation on his port side, heading towards the distant ship.

.

I flung myself out of the cockpit and slid down the ladder as fast as I could. Reaching the bottom, I flung myself forward, and Corran pulled me into a rough embrace before holding me at arms length and looking at me.

"Graham, you've grown. It's good to see you again."

"I thought that I wouldn't see you or Whistler again either."

Breaking away from Corran, I knelt down and hugged Whistler, who was bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Who's your friend?"

I stood up and turned round just in time to see a dark-haired woman come up and hug Corran. I glanced at Corran, my head cocked slightly. He flushed slightly, and then smiled.

"Mirax, meet Graham, my one-time protégé, and a good friend. Graham, meet Mirax Terrik, noted trader, and my wife."

I stepped back slightly.

"Any relation to Booster Terrik?"

She shook her head slightly and smiled. Corran laughed.

"Yes, but he's slightly reformed, owns his own ship and uses it to trade many legal things, and only a couple of illegal things. Mirax is his daughter, and when we first got together, you could hear him howling from three sectors away."

Whistler suddenly gave a sing-song whistle, and I stiffened.

"Kirtan Loor? Here?"

Corran shook his head before looking behind me and coming to attention. I turned and found myself facing a tall fish-like alien in a white uniform.

"Are you Graham, otherwise known as Jorias C'baoth?"

I paused as Corran's eyes seemed to bore into the back of my head.

"Yes, and no."

"What do you mean?"

I glanced round at the crowded hangar.

"Can we discuss this somewhere quieter?"

.

The door closed behind Corran and me. To my relief, both Ooryl Qryyg and Mirax had chosen to go to the recreational area. I sat down on a chair and waited for the others to be seated. The alien turned to face me.

"I am Admiral Ackbar. When the Council finally received the report that Knave Squadron had almost finished here, the chance to gain two potential Jedi and an elite squadron equal to Rogue Squadron was too much to pass up. I was on my way here in the _Home One_ in an attempt to personally recruit you when the distress call was broadcast. We then teamed up with the _Mon Remonda_, and came to your aid. The Star Destroyer that you identified as the _Claw_ has surrendered to us, with extreme damage. The other Star Destroyer escaped with some damage. Dave Hunter said that it was commanded by an Admiral Thrawn, and he has volunteered to tell us about him, since we also seem to be at war with him. That is not important however, your story is."

I nodded slowly, and glanced at Corran.

"May I assume that both Corran here and Garik "Face" Loran have given you details of my life up to and slightly beyond our departure from Corellia?"

Ackbar picked up a pad from his desk and trained one eye on it before answering. "Yes. You were adopted by the Wookie Khanchassata after you were caught attempting to raid Knave Squadron's headquarters. You proved yourself a good pilot and officially joined Knave Squadron, eventually leaving Corellia with them. You went to Tatooine, where you somehow discovered that you were a Jedi. After that, you vanished for several years before appearing here, where you aided in the training of two starfighter squadrons."

I nodded again.

"Okay, time to fill in the gaps. I was originally born Jorias C'baoth, son of Jorius C'baoth. Bounty Hunters working for Palpatine managed to kidnap me, and flee. Although Jorius tracked them all down, they had abandoned me on Corellia, where I was found and taken in by an old thief. From him, I learned many of my more, how shall I put it, disreputable skills. As I had no memory of who I was before, he called me Graham, after his son, who had been killed during a lightfight between him and CorSec. After the old thief died, I managed to survive on my own for a bit, but I was forced to try and rob Knave Squadron to replenish my stash of credits. You know the story from then to our fleeing Corellia. Just after Corran escaped into Hyperspace, the Black Asp gravved us. Marcus Farlander and I peeled off and attacked it. Marcus managed to destroy their shields, but died in the process, crashing into its bridge after he was hit by an Ion bolt. We escaped to Tatooine, where we discovered an old Rebel base. Exploring it, I bumped into Cybo, literally. While I was out cold, Cybo aided the rest of the squadron in exploring the base by providing info. Khan managed to jury-rig the generators, and we gained a new pilot, and several new starfighters. We also found out that I was Jorias, although I still prefer the name Graham. Exploring by myself, I found my Father's room, and found myself in possession of his lightsaber, and this."

Reaching into my flight-suit, I pulled out the holocron and laid it on the table. Ackbar turned his head and focused on of his eyes on it, while Corran leaned closer to take a good look at it. Hiding a smile, I reached out and touched it. The air above it flickered for a moment and Yoda appeared. Everyone except me jerked backwards in shock and confusion.

"Meet Yoda from Dagobah, the Gatekeeper of this Holocron, and my Mentor. He has taught me how to use the Force, and how to allow it to use me. According to him, I require only a little bit more training before I can officially become a Jedi Knight,. Haisani has already become a Jedi Knight, but he had several years head start on me, and had a real Jedi Master teach him."

_Reaching_ out, I deactivated the Holocron by thought, then _lifted_ it into my hand. Ackbar looked thoughtful.

"Until you become a true Jedi Knight, it is best that you remain with Knave Squadron. Dave Hunter has agreed for Knave Squadron to be assigned to the Mon Remonda, alongside Rogue and Shadow Squadrons, and I have ordered you to be re-equipped with X-wings for now, and a new-type starfighter later. Although this may upset the current starfighter balance somewhat, the unusual tactics that you have developed will aid in creating a new balance. I am sure that Lieutenant Corran Horn and will be happy to show you round the Mon Remonda. Dismissed."

I stepped through the door with Corran beside me. Turning to him, I asked what was on my mind.

"How did you get to be with the most elite squadron in the Alliance, and hook up with the daughter of your father's greatest enemy?"

Corran smiled at me.

"I'll tell you over a Lomin-ale."


	5. Chapter 4

**INTERLUDE**

.

_ A new threat to the New Republic has arisen, a non-human Imperial Grand Admiral called Thrawn Under his command, the remnents of the Empire have regrouped and struck several deadly blows against the New Republic. Reeling from the loss of several key star systems, the New Republic has rushed the production of its new starfighters through, at the loss of several key test stages._

==808==

**CHAPTER FOUR**

.

_E-Wing :-_ _Introduced during the campaign against Grand Admiral Thrawn, the E-wing soon became a key element in the New Republic fleet. Unfortunately, in the campaign against Thrawn, a key problem emerged with the E-wing. Under combat condition, the lasers were apt to suddenly lose up to 70% of their offensive punch. This flaw was discovered by the newly-commisioned Knave Squadron, and only the sudden intervention of High Flight Squadron (pulled out of hyperspace by an Imperial Interdictor) saved them from being destroyed... _

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

I looked at my new starfighter, taking in the flowing lines and the long engines mounted beneath the wings. Behind me, Corran gave a whistle of appreciation.

"Those are magnificent."

I nodded slowly, ducking down to see the torpedo launchers.

"Three laser cannons, using synthetically-spin sealed Tibanna gas for more easily aqcuired firing power, two missile launchers with eight missiles each, superior sensors and targeting system for planetary and deep space combat, speed of a TIE Interceptor. What a starfighter."

Ignoring Corran, I walked over to the E-wing, noting the ID markings just below the Knave markings, two stylised activated lightsabers, one white, the other a deep sapphire, crossed in front of a New Republic crest. At the point where the sabers met, a small styalised golden starburst with a Rebel Insignia centred inside covered them, making it impossible to see which lightsaber was on top. Reaching out, I lightly brushed the black stripe along the wing, looking at the number-denomination stripes on the aft of the upper surface.

"Impressive."

I turned and faced Dave, who was entering the hangar.

"Yes, it is, but there is something not quite right about them."

"Jedi hunch?"

I don't know. It's a sort of feeling that in combat, we are going to discover something unpleasent, possibly life-threatening."

Dave looked nervous.

"Corran, orders for you from Wedge. You are needed at headquarters now. Something about black dreadnoughts. Graham, get ready, we leave on our mission in fifty minutes"

Corran saluted and left. Dave came up beside me.

"What do you think is wrong about these ships?"

"I don't know!" I shook my head, trying to think. "Although I'm not sure, I think it has something to do with the lasers. I keep getting flashes of a laser hitting a TIE, and it only receiving light damage."

_I hauled back on my stick, and the TIE obligingly dropped into my sights. I hit the fire button, sending three lances of red energy directly into its fuselage. The TIE rocked as the lasers melted into its hull, but it kept flying. An instant later, I saw it pull away, its armour only half melted. Somehow it had survived._

I blinked and realised that Dave was shaking me.

"I'm alright."

Dave looked closely at me.

"You zoned out for a minute. Was it the TIE vision again?"

I nodded, and he looked worried.

"I'll spread the word through the squadron that there _might_ be something wrong with our lasers. Nevertheless, we leave in forty-eight minutes."

I reached out and touched the craft again.

"Well, it looks like you and I are going to have some fun soon." I murmured, quietly enough so that the techs ignored me.

.

The hangar of the Mon Remonda loomed ahead of me, and I managed to get into tractor range, despite the fact that I was flying on only one engine, and a severely damaged engine at that. Even so, I was in better shape that the other ten E-wings behind me, and alive, unlike Vint, who had sacrificed himself to disable the Interdictor that had jumped us. As the beams pulled me into the hangar, I hit the switch to lower the landing gear. Nothing happened.

"Sithspit! Saber, respond. Landing gear non-functioning. Problem?"

Writing scrolled across the cracked interface screen.

"Hydraulic pump shot out, resulting in total loss of pressure, huh. Okay. I know you hate it when I do this, but I have no real choice."

Ignoring the protests of my R-7 unit, I _reached_ out and unlocked the landing gear, extending it until it locked into position. An instant later, a slight judder told me that I had passed through the magnetic field. Glancing out of my cockpit, I saw a team of techs rushing towards my craft as it was lowered to the deck. As it landed, I jumped out, then turned and _lifted_ Saber out of his socket and down to the deck, ignoring his wails of distress and the shock on the faces of the techs.

"Are you the Jedi pilot?"

I turned and faced the female Mon Calamari who had asked the question.

"Which one? There's me, Haisani or Luke Skywalker, perhaps more. Which one of us were you after?"

She blinked in confusion, then recovered.

"Captain Onoma wants to know what happened, and why. He is waiting for you in the briefing hall. The others will join you soon."

I shrugged and turned to face Haisani's fighter, which was easily recognisable due to the fact that the transparisteel on the cockpit had been replaced with titanium alloy plates, a fact which confused many pilots on both sides of the war. As it opened, I _sent_ a brief message to him, before turning back to the Mon Calamari.

"Dave will join us once Haisani gives him the message. Let's go."

As we exited the hanger, I glanced at her and caught her gaze.

"What is it?"

She hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Aren't you rather young to be a pilot?"

I smiled.

"Well, fifteen can be considered young for a fully-fledged combat pilot, but Luke Skywalker was only a few years older when he destroyed the Death Star. Gavin Darklighter was sixteen when he joined Rogue Squadron. But if you are asking about my Jedi skills, no. There is a story about Vima Sunrider using her Jedi powers when she was eight, being a fully trained Jedi Knight when she was fourteen and becoming a Jedi Master when she was twenty-one."

She blinked slowly, and then stopped by the side of the door to the briefing room. I smiled at her, and then walked in. Captain Onoma stood staring at the holoscreen, which was displaying a schematic of the E-wing. I waited by the door untill he waved at me to approach. As I strode forward, he swivelled one eye to look at me.

"Jedi Lieutenant Graham, report on the mission."

"The mission, or the sudden and unexpected failure of the E-wing's primary armament?" I countered. Onoma wilted a bit.

"The weapons problem will suffice for now."

I looked at the blueprints for the E-wing, and then used the controls to zoom into the upper-central laser cannon. I pointed at it as I began my lecture.

"On the way to the hangar, I had plenty of time to _examine_ the laser cannon, using my Jedi powers. I also ran several diagnostics to check my findings, and used Saber's memory banks to root out some background info. The blaster gas used in the lasers is artificially spin-sealed Tibanna gas, chosen primarily because it is cheaper and can be synthesised on almost any planet with the right technology. Under laboratory conditions, it is more stable than naturally spin-sealed Tibanna gas. In combat though, it is not. I am not sure exactly why, it could be resonance with the engines, shield energies, or any of a thousand other things, but the gas breaks down after a mere ninety minutes in combat situations. If it was not for the fact that the technicians routinely replace and recharge the gas cartridges after every battle, we would have discovered this problem about three months ago, instead of now, in the middle of the war against Thrawn. The gas broke down incredibly fast after the ninety minute mark, in fact, one laser that I fired had a negative power gradient of almost seventy percent during the production of the bolt. From full power to just under a third in a single shot. The rest of the cannon has been optimised for the artificial Tibanna, so it will have to be completely refitted for natural Tibanna if we are to have a reliable weapon for combat. If it wasn't for the fact that the E-wings carry sixteen missiles each, and the sudden appearence of High Flight Squadron, followed by the Mon Quarren and you, we would have suffered a lot more than major damage to all the E-wings. We managed to bring all but one back, but it will be a while before they can be used in combat again. You had better warn the other E-wing elite squadrons of this flaw before it is too late."

Onoma nodded again before speaking.

"While you were coming here after landing, a Tech comlinked me a rough estimate of ninety-six hours before the E-wings are operational. However, in about five days, we are launching a major attack against Thrawn. The Mon Remonda has been ordered to rendezvous with the fleet at a secret location. We will be briefed on our new mission when we get there."

Behind me, the door hissed oped and Dave strode in.

"Captain Onoma, I think I know why the laser cannons failed us..."

He stopped as we both turned to stare at him, and then he looked at the screen, which still glowed with an expanded schematic of the laser cannon.

.

I slid into my seat beside Dave Hunter. Opposite me, I caught a glimpse of Wedge Antilles, talking to a tall, red-haired pilot who bore a remarkable resemblance to General Cracken. Two rows up, Corran Horn spotted me and lifted a hand in greeting, before turning to exchange a few words with the green-exoskeletal insect-like humanoid beside him. They stopped talking just before Admiral Ackbar strode into the centre of the room with two humans flanking him. The noise died down to silence, and Ackbar began talking.

"Officers of the New Republic. None of you needs to be reminded that in the past few weeks our war against the remnents of the Empire has changed from what was once called a mopping-up exercise to a battle for our very survival. For the moment, the advantage of resources and personnel is still ours, but even as we speak, that advantage is in danger of slipping away. Less tangible but no less serious are the ways in which Grand Admiral Thrawn is seeking to undermine our resolve and morale. It is time for us to throw both aspects of this attack back into the Empire's face. General Madine."

The officer on Ackbar's left took a pace forward, and started to talk.

"I assume that you've all been briefed on the innovative form of seige the Imperials have created around Coruscant. They've been making some progress in clearing out the cloaked asteroids; but what they really need to get the job done is a crystal gravfield trap. We've been assigned to get them one."

The red haired pilot muttered, "Sounds like fun," before Wedge hissed "Quiet."

Madine ignored the interruption.

"Intelligence has located three of them. All in Imperial-held space, naturally. The simplest one to go after is at Tangrene, helping to guard the new Ubiqtorate base being built there. Lots of cargo and construction ships moving round, but relatively few combat ships. We've managed to insert some of our people into the cargo crew, and they report that the place is ripe for the taking."

"Sounds a lot like Endor," Dave commented, obviously remembering some of the sims we had run together. "How can we be sure that it isn't a trap?"

"Actually, we're pretty sure it is," replied Madine. "That's why we are going here instead."

An image of a huge space complex rose above the holoprojector. The central crew and control portion was almost dwarfed by the ships in drydock and in orbit round the sprawling mass.

"The Imperial shipyards at Bilbringi," he said. "And I know what you're all saying to yourselves: it's big, it's well defended, and what in the galaxy is the High Command thinking about? The answer is simple: it's big, it's well defended and it's the last place the Imperials would expect us to hit."

"Moreover, if we succeed, we will have severely damaged their shipbuilding capability," Ackbar added. "As well as putting to rest the growing belief in Grand Admiral Thrawn's infallibility."

I privately agreed with Ackbar, although having been the person who fired the final missile into the bridge of Thrawn's old flagship, I conceeded that I was probably somewhat biased. Madine interrupted my thoughts.

"The operation will consist of two parts. We certainly don't want to disappoint the Imperials planning the trap for us at Tangrene, so Colonel Derlin will be in charge of creating the illusion that that system is indeed our target. While he does that, Admiral Ackbar and I will be organising the actual attack on Bilbringi. Any questions?"

Silence ruled for a moment before the red-haired pilot beside Wedge raised his hand and spoke.

"What happens if the Imperials pick up on the Bilbringi attack and miss the Tangrene preparations entirely?"

"We'd be most disappointed in them," replied Madine. "All right, gentlemen, we have an assault force to organize. Let's get started."

As we exited, I turned to Dave.

"Why did you pull me in on the briefing?"

Dave turned to face me.

"I have accepted a promotion that will take effect after this mission. They have already lined up a pilot to fill the resultant gap in the squadron, as well as an ex-Rogue volunteer to bring us back to full strength, but a new leader will be required. I have decided that you are the best choice, and my recommendation has been accepted."

I stared at him.

"Graham, after we return from getting the CGT, you will be promoted to Captain, assuming we survive. It was a tough battle, but I threatened to take the squadron and go "rogue" if they refused. The other squadron members also agreed that you should take over the squadron. I am getting too old for Starfighter missions. I have asked for, and been promised command of the Knave Home, which has been renamed the Free Spirit."

I stared at him, trying to come to terms with what he had just said. He saw the expression on my face, and grinned.

"Congratulations on becoming the youngest de-facto Captain in the NR fleet."

.

I woke up with a start, sitting up as the dream faded. On the other side of the cabin, Khan rumbled in his sleep. The comm unit beeped, and I managed to acknowledge it without waking Khan. The screen lit up and Haisani's face seemed to "look" at me. Before I could say anything, he started taking.

"Graham. Sorry to bother you, but did you have the same dream that I did?"

"You mean about the Imperials ambushing us at Bilbringi?"

Haisani nodded.

"Damn. Graham, we have to warn Ackbar. Onoma trusts you more than he does me, so you have to tell him. Two Jedi having the same dream means trouble. The attack has to be cancelled."

I shook my head.

"This will only convince him that I'm a coward. The attack cannot be called off without wrecking the morale of the whole New Republic. However, I can tell him that we can expect trouble, and hope that he passes it onto Ackbar."

Haisani thought about it for a second before nodding and breaking the connection. I quickly typed Onoma's communication code, identifying myself at the prompt. A few seconds later, the screen cleared and Onoma looked at me.

"Graham. It's quite early, I'd only just got up. What do you want?"

"It's about today's, erm, mission. I got a premonition about it, and so did Haisani. We are going to hit forces at least fifty percent above the worst-case estimate. I still do not know if it is a trap or not, but it is going to be a bigger brawl than we thought it would be."

Onoma nodded thoughtfully before replying.

"I trust you on this. I will forward the warning to Ackbar, but we are committed. In less than six hours, we are going to Hyperspace into battle. Eight hours from now, we are going to reach Bilbringi, and from then on, well, you know."

I nodded.

"The plan calls for the new E-wings to be launched once we arrive, to try and preserve the Blaster Gas cartridges from premature breakdown. Since Knave Squadron is the best E-wing squadron we have, you will be launched first to provide a screen for the other launches. Graham, you and the other Knaves should report to the launch bay in seven and a half hours from now. Thank you for the warning. Captain Onoma out."

I sighed and leaned on the comm board.

"Well," I whispered. "The warning has been received, and now all that remains is the battle."

.

"Thirty seconds to Reversion."

The announcement rolled through the hangar, partially drowned by the sound of the E-wings engines powering up. I hit the comm switch to hear the next announcement.

"Twenty seconds."

My ship rocked as a tractor beam lifted it just enough for me to activate my shields and retract my landing gear.

"Ten seconds."

"Nine."

"Eight."

"Seven."

"Six."

The Mon Remonda suddenly shook, and the mottled hyperspace pattern outside turned into a starfield.

"Emergency launch! Emergency Launch!"

I slammed back into my seat as my E-wing was pushed through the magnetic shield at almost four gravities of acceleration. Flicking on my targeting scanners and slamming my throttle to max, I turned left, and froze. Ahead of me, just visible through the approaching swarm of TIE's, were at least a hundred Imperial capital ships of various sizes. I pulled back slightly, and the rest of my flight formed up behind me.

"Knave One to all Knaves. Eighty minutes combat before we have to return to Mon Remonda for gas recharge. Flight two, take dorsal, flight three, ventral. Confirm."

I hit my comm button. "Knave Five, dorsal, ackniowledged."

"Knave Nine, ventral, confirmed."

I pulled up slightly, the rest of my flight staying in formation.

"Loose formation, wingmates stick together. Thirty seconds until TIE's are in firing range. Keep missiles for capital ships or laser power drop situations."

The first TIE came into range, and I nailed him with a single bolt through the cockpit. An instant later, a triple-linked laser burst incinerated the TIE's wingmate. My comm suddenly lit up with messages.

"Knave One, three from below."

"This is Twelve, someone get this squint off me."

"Some of these TIE's have shields!"

"Knave Five, you have two on your tail!"

I instantly reversed thrust on my engines, slowing so rapidly that the two TIE's, and Khan, shot past me. Hitting full thrust again, I linked my lasers and took out both TIE's with two bursts of fire.

"Leader to Knaves, split and attack."

I pulled up slightly and then looped down, taking out a TIE that was attempting to get a lock on Khan. I looked at my sensors and activated my comm.

"This is Five, we have a TIE squad coming from behind. I'm on it, going comtran, no need for assistance. Khan, take over two-flight."

I hauled back on my stick and allowed myself to enter a combat trance. The TIE's seemed to leap into my sights, while I managed to dodge their fire with no apparent effort.

"Lead to Five, come in."

I shook off my trance and glanced at my chrono.

"Lead to Five. Graham, come in!"

"Sorry Lead. I was in a combat trance for the last tenty minutes. What is it?"

"Rogue Squadron has infiltrated the Shipyards. We are to go in before the Mon Quarren, and hit the upper Golan Battle Station. Dual fire, attack by flights. Three Hand formation."

I slotted into position, and targeted the Golan II.

"Flight Two, report."

Khan growled that he was locked and ready to fire.

"Knave Seven, ready."

"Knave Eight, locked and loaded."

"Dual fire. Wait for instructions."

Below us, a partially blacked out battle station loomed, sporadically lit by explosions that also illuminated two Nebulon-B frigates that were strafing it. Above the damaged station was a second one, firing at the two frigates. I glanced behind me, and saw a Mon Calamari Cruiser coming in behind us.

"Lead to all Knaves, fire on my mark. Mark!"

My two missiles raced ahead of me, joining the other twenty-two on their way to the station. As if it was a signal, the station started to fire at us, sending out waves of destructive energy.

"Lead to all Knaves, get past the station and do as much damage as possible in the yard. Break and attack!"

I pulled up slightly before spiralling left in a corkscrew maneuver. The station seemed to sparkle as the missiles impacted on its shields, blinding its sensors for just long enough for us to slip past. Behind us, the cruiser started to unleash a broadside on the station. Pulling up, I found myself head-to-head with a partially completed Star Destroyer that was trying to enter the battle. Without thinking, I fired two torpedos straight into its bridge. A few seconds later, the ship came under fire from a freighter. I switched to broadband and hailed it.

"Knave Five to unknown freighter. Do you require assistance?"

"Knave Five, this is the Lastri's Ort. We have the CGT. If you can keep Ackbar's promise and get us safely out of. . ."

The comm stuttered to silence. I pulled round, and saw an Imperial Star Destroyer enter Hyperspace, followed closely by a Dreadnaught and an Interdictor. Within minutes, the entire fleet Imperial had retreated into hyperspace. Over my comm, a babble of voices overlapped. I leaned back in my chair, just as the timer told me that the laser cannons were about to drop in power.

"Five to Lastri's Ort. Seems that hostilities are over. Did you want an escort to anywhere in particular?"

.

The last smuggler ship in the convoy headed by the Home One flickered into hyperspace, bound for Coruscant. As it vanished, I carefully looped round and headed back to the Mon Remonda, skirting the wreckage of an Imperial Star Destroyer that had been all but shredded in the voidfight. Ahead of me, providing a startling contrast to the hard, angular yet broken lines of Imperial craft, the near-organic shape of the Mon Remonda seemed welcoming. Spotting the rest of my squadron, I slid into formation and landed in the bay, opening my cockpit to the sound of cheers and near-riotous celebration. Climbing out, I tapped a tech on the shoulder, recognising her as the Rogue's chief tech as she turned.

"Why the huge celebration?"

Koyi Komad looked at me as if I was mad, then comprehension dawned.

"News just in. The fleet just received word from several independent sources. Thrawn is dead, killed by an assassin avenging his planet."

I gaped at her as my brain fought to accept the incredible news. An instant later, Khan appeared and hauled me into a victory hug before tossing me into the air and catching me again.

"Khan! Don't do that, I'm not a kid any more. Remember?"

Khan _chuffed_ with laughter before allowing that it was getting harder to lift me. Koyi smiled at the display before waving at Tycho, and pushing her way over to him. I turned to face Khan, and found Haisani and Slade had joined us. Slade spoke up first, his voice just audible above the impromptu celebration.

"I suggest that we get the the mess hall and celebrate with a hot meal. Prior to the furball I reserved a table for six, and I am told that both Tycho Celchu and Winter will be joining us."

I nodded, and Khan turned and plowed through the crowd, with the rest of us following in his wake.

.

As I sat back, allowing the main course to settle, Slade was entertaining Tycho and Winter with the story about the Trandoshans on Eiattu.

".. and suddenly, our table went flying across the room and flattened four of the Trandoshans. I took advantage of distraction created by Graham's Jedi powers to grab my blade from boot and place it against neck of hunter I was wrestling. Khan, however, decided to go for the brute force method, and threw his opponent, knocking him stone cold, and leaving round dent in ceiling. The four under the table were about to push it off them when Graham pulled out his lightsaber and activated it. Everyone in bar just froze stiff and stared at the blade. Even barman paled, and for Bothan, that is hard. In the silence, Graham gave small speech about how self-defense was no reason to declare blood feud, and leader of Trandoshans agreed, very, very fast. Probably something to do with saber. Once Trandoshans agreed to drop the feud, we walked out of bar and straight into platoon of Eiattu guards!"

Tycho winced and Winter laughed.

"Let me guess. They were there to take you to Isplourrdacartha, and knew absolutely nothing about the bar brawl. Correct?"

Slade stared at her, his jaw dropping open in a comical look of shock.

"I did a diplomatic run to Eiattu just after you left to join the New Republic, and heard the whole story from a pilot, Maar laThanne. He was very impressed by the story himself, almost as impressed as with Graham's mutated triple spin with extra loop. He says that he has nearly perfected it, and has managed to pull it off several times against raiders. He showed me the origional training holo of it, and it was very impressive."

"Training holo Eiattu-Beta 218 dash 331?"

"Yes. I managed to wrangle a copy to watch on the way back, and the New Republic Academy uses it to show what a TIE can do in capable hands. Why? Is it an important holo?"

I smiled. "Yes and no. It is actually a holo of the exercise that proved that they were ready to assume full duties. It happened just before Thrawn hit Eiattu."

"Indeed." said a familiar voice behind me. "And if it hadn't been for your training, we would have been wiped out."

I spun round in my chair to see the smiling face of Maar laThanne, who was dressed in a New Republic flight suit.

"May I join you?" he asked. I managed to nod, and he sat down on the eighth chair at the table.

"How did you get here?" I asked.

"After stories of Knave Squadron began filtering back to Eiattu, mainly by traders wishing to complement the Queen on her choice of trainers for the defense fleet, I applied for a position with the New Republic fleet. On my application form, I mentioned that I had been trained by Knave Squadron. They quickly accepted me and here I am, reserve pilot Maar laThann. How's the squadron?"

Slade answered in a growl. "Vint's gone, took dragship with him. No body for burial. All others alive, and relatively unharmed."

Maar looked shocked.

"Vint's dead? Sithspit! I'm sorry, I didn't know."

I shrugged, fighting off despair at the memory.

"Happened last week. He went the way he always wanted to, hopeless odds, blaze of glory, saved the squadron. We were jumped by an Impdeuce and Dragship. Vint took out the dragship just as High Flight Squadron dropped out, but got hit with an Ion blast, and wiped the bridge. High Flight protected us from the brights until the Mon Quarren could respond and drive the Impdeuce away."

Maar looked at me, then poured himself a glass of wine. Lifting it up, he proclaimed, "To the unforgotten heroes, wherever they are."

"To the unforgotten heroes." we chorused.

I took a sip of my lomin-ale, and then sat back.

"So, Winter tells me that you've finally managed to get that unstoppable mutated triple-spin with loop sorted?"

Maar smirked and nodded. I sighed comically.

"Bad luck. Two days after leaving Eiattu, I came up with a countermove."

The shock on Maar's face caused the rest of us to almost collapse with laughter.


	6. Chapter 5

**INTERLUDE**

.

_ In the Core Worlds, still under Imperial rule, a new threat to the New Republic has risen. Pooling their resources and navies, the remaining warlords, pirates and other Old-line Imperials have finally abandoned their fueding and joined forces, a process hastened by the actions of the New Republic against Prince-Admiral Krennel, Imperial warlord and murderer of Sate Pestage. Now, with an armed force comparable to any prior to the Battle of Endor, they are ready to make their move._

**.**

**PERSONNEL CHANGE**

_**.**_

_Knave 1 :- Was :- Dave Hunter (Human male from Corellia) _

_ Now :- Graham C'Baoth (Orphan boy from Corellia)_

_Knave 2 :- Was :- Vint Hack (Human male from Alderaan_)

_ Now :- Maar laThanne (Human male from Eiattu)_

_Knave 5 :- Was :- Graham C'Baoth (Orphan boy from Corellia)_

_ Now :- Nrin Vakil (Quarren male from Mon Calamari)_

==808==

**CHAPTER FIVE**

.

_ Coruscant :- The traditional seat of power for the Old Republic, the Empire and the New Republic, Coruscant is one of the few planets that truly lives up to its name. With its planet-wide city swallowing all the continents and seas, Coruscant is reliant on constant shipments of food to remain viable for intelligent life. Equipped with the most high-tech planetary shield system known, Coruscant is able to defend itself against all but the most determined would-be invaders..._

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

The beeping of my comlink woke me up. _Reaching_ out, I activated it and _pulled_ it into my hand with one move.

"Graham here. Go."

"Captain Graham, Please report to the main briefing room."

"Acknowledged."

Sitting up, I pulled my uniform on and ran to the main briefing hall. As I approached the entrance, I slowed down quickly to stop myself from bumping into Captain Onoma. Allowing him to enter before me, I quickly found an empty seat. Onoma strode into the centre of the room and started speaking.

"We have just received word that Coruscant is under attack from the Inner Core Imperial Forces, who have united in an attempt to destroy the New Republic. With the losses sustained in the Thrawn Campaign, the Coruscant forces cannot hold against them for more than twelve hours, so the High Command is evacuating."

A ripple of murmers filled the room for a few seconds as we realised what this meant. I held up my hand.

"Yes, Captain Graham?"

"From what you said, I assume that we are not going to rush back to Coruscant to stage a rescue. What are our orders?"

Onoma blinked in suprise before continuing.

"The High Command is sending out messengers with encoded datacards containing the location of our primary rendezvous sites. Until then, we are to adjust our course for purposes of concealment. Aves."

A non-uniformed man stepped forwards and started speaking

"Talon Karrde, de-facto leader of the Smugglers Alliance, has placed his ships in the service of the New Republic for the duration of this emergency, since the New Republic has been less oppresive to smugglers and independant traders than the Empire. Mara Jade, his second in command, will escort one of the messengers to our new location. The seriousness of the situation can be seen by the fact that the Mon Calamari have actually backed the agreement to pay the Smugglers Alliance for their services. Admiral Onoma, back to you."

"Thank you. Until further notice, we are at red alert, and must be able to launch half our fighters within one minute. The MC90 Cruiser Hope, under Admiral Arboga, is joining us within the hour, and is assuming command of the fleet. Inform your squadrons personally of the new situation, and be prepared for anything. When the Hope arrives, we will make the jump to Hyperspace. Maverick and Sabre Squadrons will act as escort shield until then, with Knave Squadron ready for any necessary counterstrikes."

The briefing room emptied, and I headed to the small room that Knave Squadron had commandeered as a private briefing room. Walking inside while pulling out my comlink, I paused in amazement at the sight of the entire squadron already waiting for me. Haisini spoke up.

"I _knew_ that you were going to call a meeting, so I pre-empted your call to save time. What's the emergency?"

I quickly related the situation, and several members turned pale.

"This is not good." said Nrin Vakil. "Even in my days in Rogue Squadron, I never heard news as bad as this."

I nodded slowly before replying.

"In less than an hour, we are making the jump. We are going to be the primary choice for the spearhead if the Imps find us, so get some R&R. I'm going to grab a bite then go to the simroom. Anyone wants to come, just be aware that I'll be running worst-case scenarios."

Maar smiled.

"What other kind are worth doing?"

.

I pulled my E-wing in a tight loop and dropped in behind the I-7 Howlrunner. Hitting my trigger, I peppered it with laser fire, tracking it as it attempted to lose me. A few seconds later, a second stream of fire hit it, collapsing its shields and turning it into a ball of plasma.

"Thanks, Graham. I'm getting too old for this."

Without bothering to respond verbally to Hasaini's statement, but pulsing acknowledgement of it, I peeled off and dropped in behind the limping freighter, positioning my ship to intercept a stream of laser fire aimed at the freighter's engines. Saber wailed as the shield indicater started flashing on its journey towards total failure.

"One flight, form up on me. Provide extra shields for the Starduster 2. Nrin, take Two flight and vape the Howlers. Han, Three flight is loose escort, vape what Two flight misses."

With the ease of long practice, Three flight pulled back slightly while Nrin led the others straight into the remnents of the wing of Howlrunners that had been trying to destroy the Starduster 2. I hit my broadsend comm switch.

"Captain Dantels, status?"

There was a slight pause before the answer came. "Severe engine damage, holding temp down by diverting energy from nonessential systems to cooling systems. Lasers inoperative, torp tubes melted. Hull integrity nearly non-existent, only holding together due to tensor field and pure willpower. Shields holding at fourteen percent but rising slowly."

"Confirmed. ETA, four minutes, we'll get you there. Hope, requesting extra aid here. Launch the B-wings to take over shielding the freighter, and we'll finish off the howlers." I glanced at my screen and quickly altered my opinion of what was required. "Cancel request. Good job Nrin. How many escaped?"

"None."

"Well done. Stay in aft arc in case any others drop in. Three flight, tighten formation a bit. Hope, ETA three point five minutes. Laser drop estimated in thirteen minutes, request permission to land and recharge lasers."

"Permission granted, Maverick Squadron is now launching to take over patrol duty. Knaves, good job."

I _enhanced_ my vision and saw twelve X-wings launch from Hope's bay in a near-perfect three-diamond formation.

"Showoffs. Knaves, Twin-sphere escort formation on my mark. Mark."

The comm crackled for an instant as the Knaves slotted into their alloted position, and Captain Xarrce Huwla's amused voice came on.

"Nice trick. So much for getting you back for sim defeat."

I smiled at the nearly hidden embarrassment in her voice.

"Take over and we'll call it even. See you soon."

.

I climbed out of my E-wing into a pool of silence. Looking round, I homed in on Admiral Arboga who was standing despondantly twelve metres from my E-wing.

"What's wrong?"

Arboga flicked one eye at me before replying.

"Ah, Graham. Some of the information on the datacard was scrambled due to it getting caught in a feedback arc before you rescued it. We do not yet have enough information to join the main fleet."

"As if that's my fault." stated Captain Dantels, stalking round him and planting herself directly in front of him. "I barely managed to survive a wing of Howlrunners _and_ a Super Star Destroyer before I managed to escape to here, where I find that over two full squadrons of Howlers followed me. If it wasn't for the Knaves led by Captain Graham here... you're very young to be a captain, aren't you?"

Just as I was about to reply, I felt a cold chill settle over me. Yanking out my comlink, I shouted into it, "All Knaves launch now!" before dropping it and leaping back into my cockpit, leaving Arboga and Dantels staring at the spot that I had been standing two seconds earlier. Hitting the repulsorlifts and throttle at the same time, I burst through the magcon field just as my cockpit finished sealing. Glancing back, I saw the other Knaves launch, and Dantels scratch her head in confusion as Arboga stalked to the turbolift. A few seconds later, Maar pulled up alongside me.

"What's the matter?" he asked just as a freighter emerged ahead of us, just within sensor distance.

"I don't know, but we have to head for that ship. Knave Leader to Hope, can you get us an I.D. of incoming freighter."

There was a pause before the communication officer replied.

"Ship I.D's as the _Messenger_, captained by Taryn Clancy. Arboga's talking to her now, she has confirmed that she has the secondary datacard on board, as well as a spook called Bremen. Why?"

Before I could answer, a Carrack class cruiser dropped out of hyperspace and instantly started firing on the fleeing freighter.

"This is Admiral Arboga to Knave Squadron. Maverick Squadron is heading out to join you, you have permission to take out the Carrack. Sabre Squadron, Intercept and try to protect the freighter Messenger. Captain Graham, after the battle you will please tell me how you knew."

"Acknowledged."

Pulling slightly to port, I headed on an intercept course with Maverick Squadron. Suddenly, Captain Huwla's voice came over the comm.

"Maverick Lead to Knave Squadron, sending Targeting info. Fire on go."

My screen lit up with a targeting schematic of the incoming Carrack, with the targeting icon centred just aft of the midline. Hitting two switches, I sent the info to the other Knaves, and set my missiles for twin fire.

"Go!"

Forty eight missiles raced towards the Carrack, and at the same time, the Hope opened fire on it, virtually shredding its port shields. Two other streams of energy joined the fire from the Hope as the Mon Remonda and the Mon Quarren opened fire as well. The Carrack quickly twisted away from the Hope, the turn exposing its unshielded side to the missiles heading towards it. The captain must have realised his mistake, because the Carrack started to roll back just as the first missiles hit, just fore of its engines. The explosions spread in both directions, turning the warship into a scattered cylinder of debris as the freighter finally reached tractor range of the Hope. A second later, a red light flashed on my weapons console.

"Knave Lead to Hope, request landing permission, lasers just dropped to thirty percent hitpower."

"Permission granted, head for Landing Bay 2. Fleet will enter hyperspace in thirty minutes. Captain Graham, please report to the Admiral's office on landing."

.

Arboga stared out of the porthole.

"I have never had a Jedi serve under me before." he stated. "It is a very unnerving experience to realise that a youngster can see trouble happening before it even appears. As such, it proves that you are the perfect choice for the mission that was mentioned on the most recent datacard. On the datacard was a request for our most elite squadron to report to our base on Pinnacle Moon, where it will be held for active duty against the Empire's new forces. The base will be under the command of General Han Solo, who has volunteered to brief and prepare the fighter teams. Your E-wings will be fitted with external fuel tanks prior to launch, and will be modified to prevent laser power-loss at the base. You will leave in twelve hours, while the fleet goes into hiding, ready for the first strike against the Empire. Dismissed."

Saluting, I left the moist room and headed down to the Knave's unnofficial briefing room. Entering it, I walked to the front, and turned to face my squadron.

"Haisani, thanks for calling them. All right. We ship out in twelve hours, location is need-to-know. Our E-wings will be given external fuel tanks, so it will be a long flight. If anyone needs sleep, you can get it in Hyperspace. For now, pack your stuff and say goodbye, launch is at twenty-one hundred hours. Dismissed."

As the squadron filed out, Haisani came up to stand beside me.

"Graham, I have a bad feeling about this."

I nodded agreement.

"Well, the only thing that can really make a difference now is if a major unknown power joins us, but that is almost as unlikely as. . ."

.

". . . a manufacturing plant has just deposed its governer and joined the Alliance. You're looking at the results - the latest hot Imperial fighter, We've got it. And you guys get to fly it."

I half-listened to Han's speech as I helped Chewbacca tinker with my E-wing, making some last-minute adjustments and finishing the squadron's modifications. I glanced at the new squat, hunchbacked ex-Imperial starfighter as a pilot spoke up.

"Why's that, General Solo?"

"'Cause we just got word that we're getting the stuffing kicked out of us on Mon Calamari by those new war machines..."

My attention focused on Solo as he continued.

"I haven't gone up against 'em, unfortunately, but I'm told that they're meaner than the Death Star, so you guys have your work cut out for you! Over here we have the latest Alliance fighter craft, the E-Wing. It's a good ship, but we've had to beef up the cannons to the point where they might blow up in your face, ain't that right, Chewie?"

Perched on my E-wing, Chewie rumbled that the risk was smaller than Han had said, before beckoning for me to pass up the fusion welder for the final linkages. As I did, the other pilots gathered round, admiring my ship while Han headed for the doorway, and the robed figure who had appeared there.

"That's one heck of a snubfighter."

"Who flies that thing?"

"I do." I said. There was a stunned silence as they looked at me.

"And you are?" asked one of them.

"Graham C'Baoth, adopted son of Khanchassata. Pilot on Knave Squadron." I replied calmly.

Several smiles appeared in the crowd, and one huge pilot stepped forward.

"For a kid, you sure are cocky. I'm Lieutenant Gavdal l'Klatt, pilot in Green Squadron. I've flown in twenty missions and have racked up twenty-two kills. Care to tell us as much about yourself, kid? We'd feel alot better protecting you if we knew your history."

Concealing a smile, I pulled out my Lightsaber and activated it, before _holding_ it vertically in front of me. As the other pilots stepped back, muttering, I spoke, mimmicking Gavdal's speech.

"I'm Captain Jedi Knight Graham Jorias C'Baoth, son of Jedi Knight Jorius C'Baoth, adopted by Khanchassata on Corellia. I am the leader of Knave Squadron, one of the few primary E-wing squadrons. I have flown in over sixty sanctioned missions, and fifty pre-Alliance missions, racking up over three-hundred kills, including at least thirty Capital ships. My Jedi Skills include levitation, telekinesis, precognition and mind-reading, and are most useful in combat. My R-7 unit is called Saber, and has been with me ever since I got this E-wing."

I deactivated my saber and placed it back on my belt.

"Any more questions?"

I was suddenly surrounded by a sea of shaking heads and muttered denials, with Chewbacca's bass chuckling an unusual countrepoint.

.

I rested my hand on the Hyperdrive levers, and pulled them back as the tone sounded. The mottled tube seemed to collapse and the starfield reformed. My sensors showed the rest of the fleet appearing behind me in formation. Glancing at my status screen, I noted the positions of Green and Laser Squadrons, as well as the secondary wing of B-wings in close fromation behind us. A sudden bloom of lights marked the launch of the A-7 Vigilance fighters from the frigates. My comm crackled and I heard Green One's comment of "White team is through!". I hit my broadband comm switch.

"Sublight power engaged! Deflectors on! Arm all Turbos and Ion Cannons!"

Straight ahead of us, a monstrous oblong behemoth loomed, firing lasers at a swarm of pods trying to escape. Squadrons of TIE/Droids and TIE Fighters danced among them, using them as target practice. I sized up the situation with a glance, then hit the switch agin.

"B-Wings, protect the pods, E-Wings, one sweep to take out the Teedees and Eyeballs, then leave the remnents to the B-wings. Vigs, Stay in reserve, you have no shields, so you are the most vulnerable. Protect the big ships from counterattacks. X-Wings, escort the V-wing transports into the upper atmosphere, then break by squadrons and engage. Knaves, on me. Flying blade formation. Fire at will."

Forming into a flying curve with me at the very front, we flew straight at the Imperials, taking some out with long range shots before they could react.

"Shields double-front, use turbos only."

Even as the others responded, I slid into a partial combat trance and fired, listening to the angry hum of the extensively modified laser cannons. The targets seemed to leap in front of me, then suddenly disappeared.

"Defender-Wing to Knave Lead, all pods safe."

As soon as I heard the message, I hit the comm switch again.

"All pods accounted for! Now let's save those evacuees. Laser, take out the fighters. Green, run on secondary target, reads as Silencer-3, attack in twenty seconds. Knaves, on me, side slam three formation. Target, Silencer-7."

Flicking the aft of my E-wing, I pulled down, skimming over Silencer-3 and provoking sparodic fire from it. Ahead of us, Silencer-7 loomed, its scanners playing over us as it attempted to gain locks on our craft. Hitting the autoscan button, I noted multiple shield weaknesses over Silencer-7's scanning and communications arrays.

"Knave one to Knave team, blast anything that looks like a scanning tower, that's the key to victory."

Matching action to words, I fired a triple burst at the nearest tower. An instant later, a barrage of laser fire blazed from the behemoth.

"Knave leader, this is Knave Three, I'm hit!"

"Han, Eject! You're on collision course!"

"Eject non-functional! YAAAAA..."

A fireball appeared just behind the forward leg of Silencer-7, blossoming at the same time as the transmission stopped. An instant later, a second fireball plummeting past marked the destruction of one of Laser Squadron's E-wings. Pulling round to make another attack run, I just managed to dodge a TIE/D, which was destroyed a second later by a V-wing speeder travelling at almost Mach 2. Opening fire, my lasers "walked" along the hull, burning away the armour and destroying the occasional TIE/D that got in the way. An instant later, Silencer-7 started to descend.

"Everyone, get out from under Silencer-7! It's going down!"

"That's not all," replied Haisani. "All of them are going down, and I don't think that it is deliberate."

As I watched, Silencer-7 hit the water, causing a tidal wave. A minute later, it started to collapse, whole sections peeling off and cascading below the oceon.

"Wedge Antilles to all units, nice job. Mop up the fighters and return to base."

I shook my head in disbelief as the remnents of Silencer-7 sank beneath the waves, which washed over it before smoothing.

"What in the name of the Sith just happened?"

No-one answered, and I let my E-wing start climbing towards the remnents of the embattled Imperial fleet being pounded by the Alliance's ships above us.

.

".. and so it is imperative that you escort Tomer Darpen to the currently neutral planet of Naboo. We need their aid if we are to continue to fight the Empire. With their eco-technology, we will be able to establish bases on totally inhospitable planets. This may give us the edge we need in our attempt to regain Coruscant. Once you have escorted Darpen to Naboo, disengage and return for a new assignment..."

The words echoed through my head as I pulled myself out of the wreckage of my E-wing and gazed round at the swamp that seemed to stretch for miles. Behind me, I heard groaning as Darpen extracted himself from his ruined custom-modified four-engined Y-wing. Turning round, I spotted several other plumes of smoke, and a few flashes of light in the sky.

"Well, looks as though the Imps are leaving."

Darpen craned his neck up and stared at the sky.

"Why do you say that?"

I smiled despite the bad situation.

"The way I figure, they managed to damage all of us with some sort of DEMP/Laser cannon, so they think that we have burned up during our unconventional atmospheric descent. They had no way of knowing that Haisani and I could link and soft-land our ships." I paused for a moment before continuing. "Then again, Haisani and I didn't know either, so it's not suprising that they decided not to check."

"Great." muttered Darpen. "So we survived, kilometres from nowhere, with no native life within sight, no food, no fresh water, and with all of us scattered randomly in an area the size of an SSD. We are as good as dead."

"Dead? Yousa notta dead!"

My reflexes sprang me six feet in the air at the sound of the unexpected voice. Spinning round, I grabbed my lightsaber, activated it and raised it to guard position in one movement, simultaneously unsheathing my Ryyk blade and bracing it along my left arm, landing in a crouch, eyes and othersenses scanning the swamp for the unexpected voice, which continued in its unusual accent.

"Yousa nutsen iffa yousa thinken yousa dead. Thissa place is mesa home, mesa live here. If mesa can live here, yousa can do da same."

As the sentence finished, I spotted the speaker leaning against a tree trunk, his clothing helping it to blend into the tree. Its eyestalks swung to look at me, and suddenly it fell over in shock.

"Issa thatta laghtsaba? Yousa Jedi? Yousa Jedi!"

Tomer Darpen turned to face me.

"I think that we have just contacted one of the Gungans. This could be rather fortunate for us."

I nodded and deactivated my saber.

"I am Captain Graham C'Baoth of Knave Squadron, Designated Military Representative of the Rebel Alliance. This is Tomer Darpen, Rebel Alliance Diplomatic Corps. May I know your name?"

The Gungan hauled himself up.

"Of coursa youcan. Mesa Obi-Qui Binks, son of Jar-Jar Binks, the Jedi frend. Mesa plizzed tomeetcha, Jedigraham. Yousa be wantin ta comta Otoh Gunga?"

I stared at him.

"Otoh Gunga? Who, or what, is that?"

"Itsa city. Itsa wheresa mesa grow up. Itsa big city unda da watah, an itsa gotta lotsa Gungans an Naboos dere. Yousa got akwalungies?"

Tomer paused to translate Obi-Qui's words, then shook his head.

"We are not equipped for deep-water swimming, and we have still to find the other members of our party."

Binks nodded slowly.

"Mesa gotcha. Yousa stay here, mesa go to Otoh Gunga, getcha akwalungies an udda Gungans to getcha maties to Otoh Gunga. Yousa stay here, mesa be right back afore yousa say welcom ta Naboo."

Before I could reply, Binks turned and flung himself into the water, vanishing with scarcely a ripple. Tomer shook his head in disbelief.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

I settled myself back on my E-wing and began to unlock Saber's compartment.

"Just what he told us to do. We wait, and see what happens."

.

Just as Naboo's sun started to reach the horizon, the water rippled and Obi-Qui Binks surged into the shallows, followed by another, older Gungan. The elder Gungan strode towards me, and bowed slightly. I returned the bow.

"Ahhh. Yousa da Captain Graham? Mesa Bombad General Ceel, of da Gungan/Naboo Army. Binksa here tella me yousa Jedi. Yesno?"

At my nod he continued.

"Ahhh. Wesa owsa Jedi bigtime forda great battle againsta mickaneeks. Wesa bringa da Akwalungies, yousa wear dem anda come ta Otoh Gunga wid us. Da udda Gungans are pickin up yoursa maties."

I caught the breather mask that Ceel threw at me and put it on as I jumped into the water. Seeing Darpen follow my cue, I ducked under the surface and followed Binks as he swam towards a deep trench. Swimming with brisk, strong strokes, I soon caught up with Binks, before _reaching_ behind me and lightly boosting Darpen's erratic progress. Without any hesitation, Binks swam straight towards a coral wall which opened slightly as he reached it. Swimming through, I involuntarily stopped at the sight of a vast stretch of illuminated spheres sprawled across the floor of a valley. Seeing Binks alter his course towards the nearest one, I followed suit, sensing Darpen thrash behind me in an attempt to keep up. As we approached the sphere, I looked in vain for any sign of an airlock, or even a doorway, but all I could see was the shimmer of what seemed like transparisteel holding back the water from inside the domes. It wasn't untill Obi-Qui actually pushed himself into the sphere that I realised what it really was. A vast, hydrostatic forcefield, enclosing the sphere, protecting the inhabitants from several tons of seawater on a constant basis. Marvelling at the incredible complexities of the apparently simple design, I pushed my way through the field, and pulled off my mask. A thump and muffled curse from behind me announced the arrrival of Darpen, obviously trying to swim through several feet above the floor-level. As I turned, he pulled himself to his feet, looking embarrased and slightly concussed.

"Wow.." I breathed as I stared through the invisible field at the sea, then at the myriad forms, human and Gungan, that had paused in their journeys to stare at us. Binks strode forward.

"Thissa way. Thissa way. Yousa goen tada bosses!"

Ceel shook his head slowly.

"Binksa! Datsa my lina. Mesa sayit! Yousa justlike yous fatha!"

Binks shrugged apologetically and waved us on, leading us through a series of larger bubbles until we entered a chamber with eight Gungans and a solitary human female sat round on a long, tall bench. Binks stepped forward.

"Hello Boss Fasch. Mesa bringin twosa pilots who wanta speaka you. Disa onesa Jedi, with laghtsaba."

Hearing my cue, I stepped forward and bowed. The human leaned towards the leader and spoke.

"The Jedi can be trusted, since it was two Jedi that saved Queen Amidala the Peacemaker, but how do we know that he is Jedi, and not Sith, like Darth Maul was?"

Boss Fasch looked at her and nodded.

"Yousa right, Lissa. Binks, movaside. Jedi, steppa forward."

Binks winked at me before scampering to the left of the chamber and I stepped forward, feeling Darpen's eyes boring into the back of my head. I bowed deeply, a move which seemed to lessen the tension in the chamber. Boss Fasch leaned forward.

"So. Yousa Jedi. Whysa Jedi cometa Naboo? Whatda Jedi want?"

I paused for a moment before answering.

"As you are probably aware, the New Republic is being attacked by the Empire, who are using new weapons of previously unknown destructive capabilities. I myself have fought and assisted in the destruction of several World Devastators on the water planet of Mon Calamari, home to the Quarren and the Mon Calamari themselves. In our current mission, we were assigned to protect Tomer Darpen as he came here in the hopes of negotiating for new technology. We were shot down by a new Imperial weapon, and only just managed to survive. Thanks to Obi-Qui Binks, and Bombad General Ceel, we were able to come here to plead our case. Will you hear us out?"

Lissa looked impressed by my off-the-cuff speech, but Fasch was harder to read. Finally he sighed.

"By our treaty wiv da Naboo, mesa not able to maka decision dis importanta ba maself. Wesa taka da Bongos to Theed, and wesa callin da full meet. Dis is decision dat affect both da Gungans and da Naboo. Wesa go, and yousa maties is joinin us dere. Dat is da word of da Boss."

.

"I seem to be spending all of my life in battle, in receptions or on the run." I muttered as I paced the large reception room, waiting to be called into the throne room where Darpen was negotiating with King Lionnica, Boss Fasch and the Council of Sixteen. The guards at the door looked at me curiously, while behind me, the rest of the squadron tried to make themselves comfortable on the ornamental chairs. Haisani strode up to me.

"Graham, may I suggest that you try some meditation to calm down? They will probably be in the meeting for a long time, and all you are succeeding in doing now is working yourself into exhaustion."

"He's right." announced Maar to the room at large. "Much more pacing, and we'll have the cost of re-tiling the floor on our hands."

I sighed and turned round.

"I can't just relax. Our fighters are wrecked, we have no transports, no blasters, virtually no credits and Darpen is probably selling us to the Naboo defence fleet for a pittance. How can I relax?"

Khan rumbled that if I did not relax, he would knock me into a chair and sit on me until I was relaxed. I frowned at him.

"You and what army?"

As soon an I said that, nine hands shot into the air.

"Mutiny!" I declared, collapsing dramatically onto a chair. "I am surrounded by mutinous pilots!"

Haisani nodded with a wry smile on his face as I sat down.

"Just try to meditate. You'll be suprised at the change it makes to your outlook."

I nodded, closed my eyes and concentrated on calming myself, reachiing out towards the stars. Suddenly my senses were overloaded by pain, anguish and despair. My eyes slammed open and I found myself looking at the ceiling of the room. A minute later, a long furry arm snaked over my head, grabbed the back of my chair and righted it and me, resettling it in its origional position.

"What happened?" asked Maar. I winced, then suddenly remembered.

"It's Pinnacle Moon." I said tonelessly. "It's gone."

The room fell silent.

"I don't know how, but it has gone. Been destroyed." I looked round at the shocked faces of my squadron. "As of now, we are on our own."

A slight noise distracted me, and I saw one of the door-guards slip inside the Throne room. A minute later Darpen rushed out, looking panicked. Before he could say anything, I explained the situation to him and he slumped into the nearest chair. Summoning all my reserves, I stood up and strode into the throne room, barely noticing its large size or the presence of Obi-Qui Binks behind me. Striding into the middle of the ring-shaped table, I bowed to Boss Fasch and the bearded heavyset man beside him.

"Do I have permission to address the council?" I asked formally.

"Jedi Captain Graham C'Baoth," the heavyset man replied in a bass rumble. "your words are welcomed by the Council of Naboo."

I nodded in acknowledgement.

"A few minutes ago, I was in a Jedi meditation trance when I detected the destruction of Pinnacle Moon, one of the moons of the water planet Da Soocha. The Alliance High Command was operating from Pinnacle Moon, so I am forced to conclude that they are all dead. As the only operating Alliance team to my knowledge, I am willing to use all my resources to purchase hyperdrive-equipped starfighters in order to try to disrupt the corrupting influence of the Empire. I am willing to sell the E-wings, or more accurately, what is left of them, for the use of eleven functioning starfighters."

The council members looked at each other, than one of them stood up.

"The council recognises the minister of security." intoned King Lionnica.

"Thank you, your Majesty. Members of the council, honoured guests. We have ten N-1 Starfighters in operating condition that have been surplus to requirements ever since the introduction of the N-2, the N-3 and the NG-1. It has also come to my attention that several of the Security Force are, at least minimally, talented, although untrained in the Force. Until now, the two items were unrelated. May I suggest that we make a present of the N-1 starfighters, with the required R-2 astromech droids, to Knave Squadron in exchange for one of them remaining on Naboo to teach our talented individuals the way of the Jedi?"

I shook my head.

"You may have heard that we are a Jedi Squadron, but only two of us are. I am, but I cannot abandon the squadron, and I cannot ask Haisani to abandon Knave Squadron just in order to get us flying again. Sorry."

"Graham, I disagree."

I turned slightly and looked at Haisani.

"Graham, I'm getting too old to be an elite pilot. I need something else to do, where I can still be useful, but that is not so vibro-edged. By accepting this, I save the squadron, and help a whole planet. Please, let me do it."

I nodded slowly.

"If you're sure, then alright, but I'll hate to lose you. However, I insist that you keep the Holocron, you will probably need it more than I ever will. Hey, Darpen, what will you do?"

Darpen turned towards me and frowned slightly.

"I still have a mission to complete, then I'll get on a transport, use my skills to hook up with one of the remnents and start re-organising it to try to defeat the Empire. Shall we set up a rendez-vous later?"

I thought quickly.

"On this day, every second Galactic-standard year from now, we will drop in at the ruins of Pinnacle Base for a two-minute period at some point, unless we manage to rejoin the Alliance prior. If we are met, then we will rejoin the Alliance, if not, we will assume that the Alliance is still non-functional, and act accordingly. We'll transmit the word 'Holocron,' the keyword for the Alliance forces to identify themselves is 'Whitesaber.' Got it?"

Darpen nodded.

"Holocron, Whitesaber, two galactic-standard years, Pinnacle base. Got it."

King Lionnica stood up.

"Fasch, please cast my vote for me. You know what it is. I'll get Knave Squadron tooled up personally."

Fasch nodded, his jowels bouncing slightly. Lionnica turned to me.

"Please follow me. Diplomat Darpen, you stay here and finish the negotiations."

.

The open hangar echoed as we strode through, looking at the ten N-1 Starfighters that lined the walls, stacked in two layers on each side.

"Many of these Starfighters were once used by Bravo Flight during the Trade Federation Crisis." said King Lionnica. "After the battle, they were, with only a few exceptions, heavily damaged, and requiring considerable repairs. One of the few exceptions was this fighter, which had only light laser scoring and some skid marks on the belly."

I looked at the indicated fighter.

"Who used it?"

"Anakin Skywalker, hero of Naboo and, we believe, related to Luke Skywalker, although we are not entirely sure of that. According to his interview afterwards, he entered combat by accident, spent most of the combat time accidently pulling maneuvers that no-one in their right minds would even consider, and destroyed the Droid Control Ship through a combination of pure luck and bad aiming."

I gave Lionnica a sceptical glance.

"I am serious. He was aiming his lasers at some Battle droids in the Hangar Bay, and accidently fired his missiles straight into the power reactor core."

Behind me, Maar let out a low whistle. I reached out and touched the small starfighter.

"Stats?"

"Origional stats, speed 90, twin lasers, single torp launcher, magazine ten. Shields rated 30 SBD. After refit, speed 105, Ion added forward between lasers, second launch tube added for increased offensive power, magazine increased to 12, shields boosted to 80 SBD."

I looked at Lionnica in amazement.

"I used to be a pilot before I was elected King, so I know all about the N-1. It's the most famous craft in our history and many are in private hands. It will be good to know that these are back in service again."

I nodded and moved to inspect the engines.

"This is an incredible craft for such a small spaceframe."

Lionnica smiled.

"Yes, it's a relic of the days when each craft was handbuilt, with emphasis on aesthetics and quality rather than functionality and utility."

.

The starfighter rocked slightly as I boosted its repulsorlifts, but I quickly steadied it. Behind my cockpit Sabertwo whistled in approval at my deftness. Activating the engines, I guided my starfighter towards the hangar entrance, aware of the other nine squadron members forming up behind me. At the Hangar bay entrance, Haisani stood, saluting us as we passed, dipping our wings slightly in respect for his sacrifice that allowed us to fly again. Pushing the throttle to maximum, I hurled the N-1 into the sky, followed by the rest of Knave Squadron keeping formation as we exited the atmosphere.

"Knave lead to Knave Squadron, I have programmed in a Hyperspace path to the nearby planet of Umgul, with two redirections to hide our origin. Transmitting co-ordinates now."

Before I could suit action to words, Sabertwo indicated that he had just transmitted it for me.

"Okay, All Knaves jump in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Jump!"

I pulled the Hyperdrive levers towards me, and the starlines extended before snapping into the multi-coloured mottled tube of hyperspace travel.

"Sabertwo, give me a countdown on reversion."

A small screen flickered to life and started counting down towards zero.

"Okay, now, establish text-interface screen.

A small screen on my left flickered, then formed the words TEXT INTERFACE SCREEN ACTIVATED.

"When was your last memory wipe?"

EIGHT YEARS AGO.

"How long have you been assigned to this fighter?"

AT LEAST EIGHT YEARS.

"Do you have a counterpart relationship with the starfighter?"

YES.

I nodded slowly.

"Okay. That might come in useful. Finally, do you have a dome-compartment that could be used to store a cylindrical object about thirty-five centimetres in length?"

YES, I HAVE A COMPARTMENT OF THAT SIZE, COMPLETE WITH POWER RECHARGE CAPABILITY AND PNEUMATIC EJECTION SYSTEM. IT IS CURRENTLY USED FOR STORING A GLOW ROD.

I nodded again.

"Okay. I have a lightsaber, and it is rather uncomfortable to wear during spaceflight. When we touch down, I'll check the compartment you mentioned, then use it to hold my Lightsaber during spaceflight."

IS THAT WHY YOUR PREVIOUS ASTROMECH WAS CALLED SABER?

"Very good, although I had the techs install a lightsaber-chute in my E-wing from Saber's socket to the cockpit, and that is why you were renamed Sabertwo."

THANKYOU. IT IS A BETTER NAME THAN GUBERFISH. REVERSION IN FIFTY SECONDS.

I nodded slightly, and quickly checked the systems before placing my hand on the hyperdrive levers and pulling them back as the timer reached zero.

"Sithspit!"

Hauling the control rod to the left, I sent my starfighter into a complex three-dimensional irregular spiral to defeat any possible targeting by the large vessel ahead of us. Behind me, the rest of the squadron executed similar moves as they came out of Hyperspace.

"Sabertwo, analyze ship. What is it, and what are its weak points?"

SHIP IS VARIENT OF TRADE FEDERATION SHIP, SHOWING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY COMPARED TO PREVIOUS TRADE FEDERATION VESSELS OF SIMILAR TYPE. SCANS SHOW NO SHIELDS, AND NO LIFE FORMS. SHIP IS REGISTERED AS THE TRADER-36.

"Hostile?"

STANDARD SCANS ONLY, ALL WEAPONS ARE IN STOWED POSITION. HOSTILITY RATING CURRENTLY .0005.

Pulling out of my evasive spiral, I flew closer to the large ship, mentally probing it, but not picking up any signs of life.

"Sabertwo, query its computers. What happened?"

ONE MOMENT. COMPUTER RECORDS INDICATE RADIATION LEAK DUE TO FAULTY COMPONANT KILLED ALL THE ORGANIC CREW. LACKING FURTHER ORDERS, AND DRIVEN INTO REALSPACE BY THE RADIATION BACKWASH, THE DROID CREW REPLACED THE FAULTY COMPONENT AND PLACED THE SHIP ON STANDBY, WAITING FOR A TEAM TO RECOVER THEM.

I hit my broadsend comm switch.

"This is Captain Graham to any active droid on the Trade Federation Vessel Trader-36. Please respond."

The comm crackled for a minute, then a mechanical voice responded.

"This is OOM-25 responding. Awaiting orders."

"Power down any active defense systems, restore full life support to vessel, open port hangar bay and send a droid to lead the new crew to the bridge, where you shall meet us and formally hand over control of the Trader-36."

"This is OOM-25 confirming. Port hangar bay is open, Life Support powering up. All defense systems confirmed disabled. Protocol Droid TD-4D has been reactivated and is heading for the hangar now."

Flying towards the strange starship, I turned the N-1 into the port hangar bay and carefully landed it on the deck. Opening the cockpit, I climbed out just as the other Knaves followed my lead and landed in the hangar bay. A door opened on one side of the bay and a silver protocol droid scurried over.

"Good day gentlebeings, I am TD-4D, Protocol droid. I have been assigned to guide you to the Bridge. If you would please follow me?"

As TD-4D waddled away, I motioned for Sabertwo to join us. Beeping in understanding, Sabertwo descended from the N-1 and raced across to us, reaching us as we went through the door into a large turbolift. The door closed and the lift sprang into motion, carrying us sideways before finally opening onto a near-deserted bridge. As I stepped out, my gaze was drawn to a skeletal droid rising from what I assumed was the captain's chair.

"Are you OOM-25?"

"I am, sir. In accordance with your instructions, I hereby hand over the Trader-36 to you, sir."

"Good. Give me a full stat-check on the Trader-36, with compressed history."

"Yes sir. The Trader-36 was a prototype for the Trade Federation Mark II Droid Control Ship. Instead of having multiple antennas to control the droids, the entire outer hull was optimised to act as an antenna. Extra weapons were also added to provide full spherical anti-starfighter cover, and the droid starfighter complement was increased to 2,000. There are 60 C-9979-B landing craft stationed on this ship, along with 600 MTT's, 7,000 AAT's, 1,800 Troop carriers, 600,000 standard Battle droids, 1,500 Destroyer Droids and over 2,000 miscellanious droids."

"That's an entire invasion army!"

"Correct sir. Please give orders for deployment. Do we advance to Naboo and rejoin the fleet, sir?"

I thought for a split second before replying.

"No, there is a new mission. Sabertwo will update our navigation maps, and we will set course for Commenor, where the enemy has a base established. Cybo, can you interface with the computer? I dare say that the programming of many of the droids needs updating, especially the Droid Starfighters. I want us to be able to field 9 full squadrons, each one led by a Knave. We'll do a rotation system for control of the Trader-36, taking it in turns to guide it through each battle."

"No, Sir."

I turned to face Cybo.

"Ah. You don't want to interface?"

"On the contrary, sir. If I understand the situation correctly, I have a better idea. I will directly connect with the ship with the aid of the R2 units, and that will give me direct control over all the droids, Starfighter and Battle. With that many bodies under my control, I can become a truly formidable droid."

I thought about it before nodding.

"If that is what you want, then fine. Please just remember that we are your friends."

Cybo's eyes brightened slightly.

"Sir, it is out of that friendship that I do this."

.

The alarms snapped me awake, and I leapt out of my bunk, grabbing my flightsuit.

"What's the problem?" I shouted above the noise.

"Mass shadow ahead, reversion imminent. Return to realspace in ninety seconds." answered Cybo over the comm.

"Is my N-1 operational?"

"Sabertwo is finishing the prep now. Droidfighters ready to launch. Reversion in Eighty. Seventy-nine."

As Cybo counted down, I ran out of my room, pulling the flightsuit up, and got into the hangar just as the mottled tunnel of hyperspace dissipated into a realspace starfield. I pulled myself into my N-1, noting absently that I was the first to reach the hangar bay. Hitting the canopy-close button, I launched my starfighter into the void, bringing the shields on-line just as I exited the hangar bay.

"Cybo, you controlling the droidfighters?"

"Yes. I have managed to create a true counterpart-relationship with the ship, and its main core was designed with incredible paralled-processing capabilities. I have used it to boost myself to the point where I can perfectly control the entire complement of the Trader-36."

"Great. So you are now the ship?"

"Well, yes. In a sense, I suppose I am."

"Good. Cybo, I hope you are ready for combat, I'm reading one modified Carrack cruiser, I.D's as the Vigilance, one Corellian Corvette, Renthal's Fist, plus multiple dead ships. They seem to be under attack by an Imp task force, comprised of one Impstar Deuce and four Nebulon-B Frigates. Link an entire Droidsquadron onto me and I'll take point. Once all the Knaves have launched, power down life-support and redirect into shielding. Get a full platoon of battledroids ready, and have them hang onto some droidfighters or loaded into shuttles. If I manage to take out the shields of the Impdeuce, then shuttle them across and try to overpower the crew."

"Confirmed. I will include several dozen droidekkas as well in the platoon, their energy shields should prove most useful."

A beep from Sabertwo alerted me to the presence of twelve droidfighters and I hit the button that linked them into my starfighter.

"All Knaves launched and linked, Trader-36 moving in."

"Good. Going Comtran in ten. All Knaves, targets of opportunity, but don't destroy the Impdeuce."

Relaxing slightly, I breathed out, allowing my mind to fall into a combat trance. The space around me seemed to flicker, and I reflexively spun out of the way, dodging a turbolaser beam by a mere metre. _Extending_ myself, I felt the presences of the Droidfighters arrayed behind me in six outward-reaching lines, and accepted them as part of me. Turning my attention ahead of me, I saw a TIE squadron peel off from its attack on the Renthal's Fist and loop round to make a run on me. _Feeling_ where they were going to be, I adjusted my aim and fired both my lasers, and those of the linked droidfighters. Fifty lines of coherent light burned through the vacuum, incinerating over half the squadron instantly. Seconds later, other groups of lasers flashed past me, taking an incredible toll of the confused TIE's. Spiralling out of the firing line, I led my linked droidfighters above the plane of battle, and down over the Impdeuce. Setting my missiles for twin fire, I targeted the port shield sphere and fired. An instant later, twenty-four smaller torpedos shot past me, following my two proton torpedoes to their target. The shock jolted me out of my partial trance.

"Cybo, what the hell was that?!"

"Each Droidfighter is armed with twin plasma torpedo launchers as well as four lasers. Didn't you know?"

"No. When I get back, you and I are going to discuss the true capabilities of all the droid types on the Trader-36."

"Confirmed. The Port Sphere on the Impdeuce Vengeful is gone, it is turning to present its starboard to the battle. Droidteam Alpha are launching now.

I smiled as I saw a group of dots zoom out from the hangar bays, obviously propelled by a tractor beam. Re-orienting myself, I raced back into the battle, sinking into my Combat Trance again, this time targeting a Nebulon-B that was firing on the Renthal's fist.

.

"Vengeful is surrendering."

I jolted back to myself and looked at the map display. On it, the Impdeuce was glowing blue, representing its sudden change in status to neutrality, while the final Nebulon-B, still glowing red on the screen, was using its three remaining engines to limp away, shedding large amounts of its superstructure.

"Cybo, what was that again?"

"All but seventy of the crew of the Vengeful are either dead or have ejected in life pods. I managed to capture the captain before he could activate the self-destruct. He was rather shocked by the fact that he had been defeated by droids. Kay and Kal have landed on the Vengeful to take official possesion of it, and Captain Renthal wishes to speak with you in person."

I blinked.

"Oooohkayy. I'm dropping shields, can you recall the droidfighters and shuttle a battledroid onto my starfighter?"

"Yes, easily. I was withdrawing most of the Battledroids for repairs and recharging, so I can get one to you in fifteen seconds."

.

My landing pads touched the landing deck of the modified Corvette, and I popped the canopy. Behind Sabertwo, the Battledroid released its grip and slid down to the deck, landing perfectly. I jumped down and straightened up face to face with a burly Devaronian.

"You Captain Graham?"

I nodded.

"Follow me."

Without any further speech, the Devaronian turned and strode out of the Hangar Bay. I followed, and behind me I could hear the click of the Battledroid walking behind us, its feet striking the deck with perfect regularity.

"Cybo, you monitoring?"

The droid turned slightly to look at me.

"Graham, At the moment, I am not only monitoring, I am to all intents and purposes actually here."

"Sorry," I muttered. "Still unused to you having multiple bodies."

"Perfectly understandable." replied Cybo.

The Devaronian stopped by a door, which hissed open. Before I could move, Cybo darted through. I followed and found him standing at attention just by the door. A movement on the other side of the room caught my eye, and I turned to see a large, wildly dressed woman standing by the viewport.

"Ah. Captain Renthal, I presume?"

She nodded, and then indicated Cybo.

"What type of droid is that?"

I smiled. "That is Cybo, a manumitted military protocol driod with a large number of programming modifications, making him suitable for combat and ceremony."

Renthal stared at him.

"He doesn't have enough circuitry to be intelligent."

"Actually, Madam, my brain is over three hundred metres in diameter, and is capable of calculating over twenty Hyperspace routes in less than a second."

Renthal started.

"Currently, I am the ship, as well as the droid army, that saved you, although I am monitoring this meeting through the body that you see before you."

"You are the ship?!"

"Yes, and all the half-million droids aboard it, including all the droidfighters."

Renthal stared at Cybo, then transferred her gaze to the Trader-36 hanging outside the viewport. I let her stare for nearly a minute before I spoke.

"As a pirate, you would know of the Alliance's current situation. Yes?"

Renthal blinked, then spoke.

"I heard that the Empire smashed it, yes."

"Well, we of Knave Squadron were on Naboo when it happened, and so we went freelance. We gained the Trader-36 due to an incredible coincidence, and this was our first freelance battle."

Renthal nodded speculatively.

"You claiming the Deuce?"

I shook my head.

"No. Cybo _is_ the Trader-36, and it would be almost impossible to transfer his new cognitive matrix onto the Vengeful. Without him, we simply do not have the crew to use the Vengeful effectively. After we replenish our fuel, weaponry and spares from the Vengeful, you can have it. You'll probably need it to replace the ships it destroyed."

Renthal grinned and I continued.

"Also, if you meet any leaders of the Alliance, whether new or surviving the destruction of Pinnacle base, tell them that Knave Squadron are still around, and looking for them."

Renthal nodded.

"Shuttle a team over to the Vengeful in. . . Cybo, how long will it take to replenish our stores?"

"I started the docking procedure as soon as you said that we would replenish our stores from the Vengeful, and have activated 2,000 cargodroids to facilitate the transfer. Operation will be complete in thirty standard minutes."

"Good. Okay, in forty minutes, shuttle a crew across to take control, or just dock with it. By then, we'll be gone. And now, with your permission, so will I."


	7. Chapter 6

**PERSONNEL CHANGE**

_._

_Knave 3 :- Was :-_ Han Tharallen (Human male from Corellia)

_ Now :- -_

_Knave 9 :- Was :- Cybo (CB09-Delta, Manumitted protocol/combat droid from Tatooine)_

_ Now :- -_

_Knave 10 :- Was :- Haisani Sulona (Miralaku male from Qorion 3)_

_ Now:- -_

==808==

**CHAPTER SIX**

.

_ Malrev 4:- Origionally intended by the Emperor as a major outpost, and a source of Sith power, Malrev 4 was abandoned by the Empire after the Battle of Endor. Only one being remained behind, a Devaronian tech called Cartarian, who was able to sense the Sith energies. Over several years, he learned how to use the power to control the native Irrukiine, but his plan to extend his power base was foiled by Rogue Squadron and an unknown Bothan infiltration team. Several Bothans were killed during the battle, as well as two pilots from Rogue Squadron..._

_ - Adapted from the New Republic Galactic Database, 35ABY_

.

The starfield glittered on the main viewscreen, surrounding the blue and green sphere that hung in space ahead of us.

"Cerea. Population, seven million at the last census, taken fourteen years ago. Gravity, one point zero six standard. Air, standard oxy-nitro mix, with a thirty/seventy split, trace gasses. Homeworld of the Cereans, humanoids with elongated craniums housing binary minds. All trade with the Old Republic was severed during the Clone Wars, and has not been formally re-established. The noted Jedi Knight Ki-Adi-Mundi came from Cerea. Footnote, due to a genetic quirk, only one in twenty-one children are male. Family units consist of a husband, one Bond-wife and many Honour-wives. Technology is only embraced if it does not pose any threat to the environment, either in the short or long term."

I nodded at Cybo's recitation of the facts.

"Go into orbit. Establish planetary communications."

"Orbit already achieved. Activating communication subroutine."

The large screen flickered and a young, startled looking Cerean appeared.

"Greetings. I am Jedi Captain Graham C'Baoth of the Sentient Ship Cybo. I wish to land to discuss a treaty between the Cerean people, and the Alliance."

The Cerean hurridly turned the pages of a folder in front of her, glancing at each page before moving on. After a short while, she stopped and spoke.

"Is your ship capable of atmospheric landings?"

"No. I wish for permission to come down in a Naboo single-person vessel, with one escort, flying his own ship. Two Astromech droids will accompany us, but will remain interfaced with our ships."

The Cerean peered at her folder, and then nodded.

"We will activate a landing beacon at the spaceport, and expect you within one Galactic Standard hour."

.

My canopy hissed open and I jumped out, my scabbarded Ryyk blade in hand. To my left, Khanchassata unfolded himself from his cockpit and leapt down, sniffing the air and rumbling with satisfaction. I secured my Ryyk blade onto my belt and then turned to face Sabertwo.

"Sabertwo, saber please."

Sabertwo beeped in acknowledgement and opened a trapezoidal hatch. With a hiss of compressed air, my saber described a perfect parabolic arc, landing in my outstreched hand. I clipped it to my belt, then strode over to Khan.

"Ready?"

Khan rumbled that he was, and that someone was approaching. I turned and found myself looking at a tall black-haired female Cerean, whose hair was marked with a shock of white that led to a scar on the side of her head. She stopped and stared at Khan, her eyes wide.

"What is. . . who is. . ?"

I took pity on her and answered her fragmented questions.

"This is Khanchassata, my adopted father. He is a Wookie. I am Jedi Graham C'Baoth, a human. And you are?"

"Sylvn"

I jolted in shock.

"I know that name from the records. Any relation to Ki-Adi-Mundi?"

Sylvn spun to fix me with an inquisitive, and confused glance.

"Yes, he was my father. Why?"

"I heard of him, he was on the Jedi Council."

Sylvn lowered her eyes briefly.

"Yes, he was. He never got to see his son, who was named after him but was killed during the Clone Wars. I was almost killed in the same raid, and was in a coma for over a year. Please come with me, the Council is waiting."

Turning, Sylvn led us to a group of three birds. Motioning to two of them, she effortlessly swung herself up onto the back of the third. Khan and I followed suit, although Khan looked distinctly nervous at sitting on the creature. Twitching her reins, Sylvn headed down a path. Using the Force, I _suggested_ to both my mount and Khan's that it would be good to follow her. Both our steeds started trotting, following the same path and quickly catching up.

"What are these birds called?" I shouted to her.

"They are called Aryx's. They are descended from predators that were caught and domesticated. They are fiercely loyal to their owners, and are willing to fight to protect them if need be."

I stroked the neck of the Aryx that I was riding.

"That makes two of us." I murmered.

.

The birds stopped outside a tall building apparently composed of three towers with a diamond-shaped section on the top. The sides of the towers were almost hidden by a veritable wall of vines, growing from every alternate level. Following Sylvn's lead, we dismounted and followed her up a long staircase which finally terminated in a large waiting hall. Sylvn motioned us to wait before vanishing through an ornate door. A few minutes later, she reappeared and motioned us through, into a large audience hall. Following her subtle gestures, I walked into the centre of the room and climbed onto the central pedestal. Khan followed, and stood behind me.

"Jedi Captain Graham C'Baoth, of the Sentient Ship Cybo, representing the Alliance. What is your business here?"

I looked up and met the gaze of the leader of the Cerean delegation standing on a raised balcony in front of me.

"I represent the Rebel Alliance, also known as the Alliance To Restore The Republic. Our aim is the overthrow of the Galactic Empire, a monstrous organisation devoted only to ruling by fear and taking whatever it wants, and to the restoration of peace and justice to the Galaxy. We made the mistake of assuming that we had won, and the Empire managed to return, scattering us. Now, we are in hiding, moving in secret, rebuilding our forces and keeping the Empire off-balance while we prepare our counter-strike. I am here today, asking not for an alliance, unconditional or otherwise, but for you to consider the possibility of one in the future. If any of your young ones wish to leave when we do, we will welcome them, but we do not wish to try to force you in any way."

The Cerean leader frowned slightly, then motioned for the others to huddle round. Ignoring them for a minute, I turned to Khan.

"How did I do?"

Khan rumbled a quick compliment, then nodded slightly towards the side where Sylvn was standing. I turned and caught a small smile on her face.

"Captain C'Baoth."

At the sound of my name I quickly turned back to face the council.

"The council has heard your words, and attended to the sentiments behind the words. We will join with the Alliance, but only in a supporting capacity. We have the ruins of twenty "Outsider Citadels" on our planet, we will be glad to let the Alliance use them, as long as you keep any ecological disruption to an absolute minimum."

I bowed to the speaker.

"I thank you for your offer, and will relay it to any other Rebel group that requires a base of operations."

The Cerean speaker nodded, then spoke again.

"Despite our apparent isolationism, we still gain some information about the Galaxy. Recently a trader passed through, and told us of a Rebel base operating out of a planet called Malrev 4. I do not know if this information is current, but it is the best we currently have. Good luck with your quest."

.

"Malrev 4?"

I nodded at Nrin's query, then I noted the shocked expression on his face.

"You know about the planet, I take it?"

"Yes. When I was in Rogue Squadron, we went to Malrev 4 on a rescue mission, trying to rescue a group of civilian Bothans. Once we arrived, we soon discovered that the Bothan's were all free-lance commando/spies, and that they were under attack by a Devaronian who used the Dark Side of the Force to control the native Irrukiine."

"Irrukiine?"

"Think Gundarks, but meaner. We lost two pilots on Malrev 4, Dllr Nep and Herian I'ngre. Dllr was mortally injured by the Devaronian, and I'ngre sacrificed her life and an X-wing to destroy the temple that was the focus point for the Sith magic that the Devaronian used."

"I see. Well, we are currently on our way there to check out the rumours. Will you be okay to land, or would you rather stay shipside?"

"I'll be okay."

I nodded and left the rec room, strolling along untill I met one of Cybo's other-bodies, doing repair work on a subsystem.

"Cybo, Whats our E.T.A?"

"Twenty hours to reversion, estimated fifteen minutes after for orbital insertion."

"Okay. We'll probably want heavy backup in case its a trap. How many C-9979's can you fully equip before we arrive?"

"How many do you want?"

"Well, we'll need to have enough to allow some innovative tactics, so two go down with us, and five or six sneak down just beyond the fringes of any planetary scanners. That okay with you?"

Cybo nodded.

"I'll put extra Droidekas in the holds for emergencies and I'll incorporate extra STAPs for more recon ability."

Beyond the heavy walls, I heard the whine of heavy machinery start up.

"Okay, thanks. I'm going to the Canteen. What's the special of the day?"

"Neimodian sausage casserole."

I groaned.

"And the other option is roasted wildnerf medallions with a hot shiir-spice sauce, and grilled menkeroo."

"That sounds alot better."

"I'll have some waiting for you when you get there."

"Thanks."

As I walked off, I shook my head slightly at the uniqueness of my most numerous crew member.

.

"Ten seconds to reversion."

I stood on the bridge. Around me, the displays flickered as if they were alive, which in fact they were.

"Eight seconds."

Cybo's voice echoed throughout the ship.

"Six seconds."

I moved to the modified pilot's chair and sat down in it. Sensing my weight on it, the automatic systems extended several banks of status screens and control screens from the floor and the sides of the chair. I quickly glanced at the readouts.

"Four seconds."

One of the screens changed slightly as the hidden outer guns rotated into battle-ready mode, and another screen altered to show a targeting shematic displaying the fire-vectors that could be used at an instant's notice.

"Two seconds."

"One second."

"Reversion."

The mottled hyperspace tube collapsed into a forest of starlines, which quickly resolved into a starfield. Ahead of us, the planet Malrev 4 loomed. I stood up.

"Cybo, I'm heading for the Hanger now. Keep me informed about what you find out from scans."

The lift door closed and the capsule accelerated towards the hangar bay. Cybo's voice spoke up.

"I have detected evidence of a base, and it seems to be in use at the moment. There are also several capital ships in orbit above the base, including a Nebulon-B frigate, four Corellian Corvettes and a Bulk Freighter that seems to be acting as an auxillary Fighter Bay. All IFF beacons are inactive, and I cannot identify the ships. I suggest that we proceed with caution."

"Noted, keep distance of one thousand klicks from the planet, full shields but no aggresive moves. Passive scans only, let's wait for them to call first. Route all calls to my fighter, but check for substream viruses or hidden coding that could conceivably intefere with standard circuitry."

Cybo paused as the lift doors opened and I strode into the hangar.

"One of the Nebulon-B Frigates has broken orbit and is accelerating towards us on an intercept course."

"Acknowledge them, but match their course and keep them at least five hundred klicks away."

I climbed into my starfighter and closed the canopy. Above me the rack released a dozen Droidfighters which powered out of the landing bay, then decelerated, waiting for me to join them.

"RED ALERT! RED ALERT!"

I slammed the throttle to max and rocketed out of the landing bay just in time to see a ship five miles long drop out of hyperspace almost on top of us. My throat tightened as I recognised the shape.

"All units launch! Cybo, evasive, get out of here! All Knaves, break and cover Cybo, retreat to previous location! Call back the Droidfighter's, they're not Hyperspace-capable, I'm going in!"

"Sensors pick up twelve fighters launching. Sensor echo suggests possibly I-7 Howlrunners or Preybirds."

Skimming round the blunt bow of the Super Star Destroyer, I threaded my way between turblaser turrets while the hull raced past me less than two metres under my hull. Ahead of me, glints of light marked the incoming fighters. I activated my scanners, and blinked in astonishment.

"Cybo, they're pulling some kind of scam on us! I.D. on fighters is Rogue Squadron, but we don't have an SSD in the fleet."

"Yes we do."

I jolted as the familiar voice came across my comm unit.

"Corran? What in the name of the Sith are you doing here?"

"Graham? What are you doing here, and more to the point, what in blazes are you flying?"

Ahead of me the glints grew into recognisable X-wings. Pulling left, I started a loop that would drop me directly in the X-wing's formation. _Reaching_ out, I felt Corran's presence, and Ooryl's alien yet easily recognised thought patterns.

"Corran, I'll get back to you. Cybo, it's O.K. The Rogues are here. Form up on the SSD and co-ordinate with it. Extend droidfighter cover if requested. All Knaves, SSD is friendly, repeat, friendly. Stand by for new operation. Corran, the Knaves are ready to help you, then afterwards, you have a_ lot_ of explaining to do."


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

.

The previous chapters are compiled from edited portions of the personal logs of Graham Jorias C'Baoth, as well as various other sources including interviews with pilots and serving military personnel who served alongside them.

After rejoining the New Republic at the staging post of Malrev 4 and participating in the liberation of Coruscant, the majority of Knave Squadron, with a new backup crew, agreed to try and retrace the path of the Outbound Flight Project, searching beyond the Rim for new sentient life and the twelve Jedi Masters who had gone before. Nrin Vakil chose to return to Coruscant to be with his wife, Koyi Komad, and was reassigned to lead one of the defence squadrons.

Rejoined by Haisani Sulona and his Padawan Obi-Qui Binks of Naboo, as well as one of the first generation of new Jedi Knights from Yavin 4, they left in relative secrecy on the upgraded, reprovisioned and renamed _Cybo_, formerly the Trader-36, under the command of General Dave Hunter, reassigned from the infiltration ship _Free Spirit_. To increase the odds of survival, several Clone-war era Trade-Federation warehouses were stripped of their Tri-Fighters and Vulture-Droids, as well as their ground-combat complements, and the contents transferred to the _Cybo_.

The last communication received hinted at the discovery of a new humanoid race living in the Unknown Regions. No further communication has been received since, and the messages to them about Luke and Mara Skywalker's rediscovery of the Outbound Flight survivors has gone unanswered. Knave Squadron is currently listed as Status Unknown, but judging by their previous history, they are probably still active.

.

- Tycho Celchu , Captain (Retired), Rogue Squadron.

- Winter Celchu (Former aide to Princess Leia, Retired)


End file.
